Cuvée de Mortagne Sauternes
Picobrouwerij Alvinne

 

A 330ml bottle, with a best before date of June 2023. Poured into a Chimay goblet glass.

Appearance: A hazy dark brown colour with a very thin beige head that disappeared immediately and no lacing.

Aroma: Sweet malt, slight vinous, red wine, grape, berries, apple, raisin, prunes, oak, with notes of caramel.

Taste: Sweet, candied dried fruit, prunes, raisin, grapes, oak, chocolate, caramel, and a light bitter herbal finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft carbonation.

Overall: It’s definitely a sipper with the booze and sweetness. Maybe a bit too sweet for me with lots of dark candied dried fruit and caramel. Still, the aroma and flavours were nicely complex with good barrel character.

Look, I’ve actually tried an Alvinne beer before on tap (it was an elderflower sour, I think it was their Cuvée Sofie Vlierbloesem) and it was fantastic. I decided these Alvinne guys & girls knew their elbows from their ankles [that’s the PG version of the phrase – useful to know when you have kids], and thus I sought out the BIG[Bearing Immense Gusto]-est brew I could get my hands on. Welcome to my review of Alvinne’s Oak Aged Cuvée de Mortagne Sauternes – a 12.8% ABV oak aged amber Quadrupel. Yep, this is going to be BIG! Added bonus – I don’t have mind a decent Botrytis wine, so looking forward to this :D

Poured from a 330ml bottle into an Orval chalice.

A: Presents a deep hazed amber-ruby body with a thin ring of bubbles instead of a head, although for a brief moment it did appear to be cream-coloured. Looks a bit like a wine/beer fusion (beer for the colour, wine for the lack of head/fizz). There’s always a chance of no head with a 12%+ ABV beer, so no worries here. 8/10.

S: What an aroma too! I had to plug a nostril to the top of the bottle to get as much of this intoxicating fragrance into my olfactory senses: mead-like, grape must and Botrytis vinous notes lead the charge, with hints of bubble-gum, raisin, and vanilla oak tones rounding out the experience. It’s rare that beer has my nostril glued to the bottle lid like some eager Beagle, but this really is sensational! 10/10.

T: Punchy AF with a real sugar-bomb explosion of flavours: vinous, grape-must, mead, bubble-gum, raisin, vanilla oak notes, yep this has all of the above going on. Along with a slight dry mid-palate wood tone, and a dash of herbal bitterness in the finish. 12.8% ABV??? Where Alvinne hiding that? Drinks like a fine Pinot Noir, soft, yielding, yet complex too. Only downside – the sugar is strong with this one, I’m going to have to book in my sexennial dental visit now (my policy with my teeth being: if it ain’t broke, don’t visit the dentist). 9/10.

M: It’s slick and gooey, like a good sticky date pudding, but the lack of carbonation is alarming to this old craft aficionado (I mean anything is better than nothing). 7/10.

D: This is a really special beer from Alvinne – I’m getting a real Omnipollo feel from this brewery, like they’re Belgian but they’re willing to try something new. Rarely does a beer with so much promise come along like this, if only they could just tweak the sweetness a touch as it does begin to cloy. That 12.8% ABV though, so well hidden. Oh yeah, a dash more carbonation would be nice too. 9/10.

Food match: Treat this like a fine wine, red meat (rare) celeriac, parsnip and truffle.

 

Hazy dark amber color with beige head. Aroma has spicy notes, wood, spirit and dried fruits. Taste is sweet, fruity and spicy with some booze on the finish. Woody bitterness on the aftertaste. Medium body and carbonation. Complex flavors but a bit boozy.