Oerbier Special Reserva 2024 (Priorat)

330mL bottle, pours a deep dark brown with a medium-large beige head. Nose is wonderfully complex, with refined red wine barrels, tons of woody oak, bretty notes, spicy Belgian yeast, and dry red fruits in wonderfully unique cohesion. Flavour is bone dry and complex as hell, with wonderful leathery oak, tons of red wine tannins, spicy Belgian yeast, bretty notes, and a touch of red fruitiness in the malts. So much tannin and oak depth. Damn impressive malt base, yeast expression, and barrel treatment. De Dolle keeps proving they’re one of the best in the game.

The Priorat version of the old Oerbier Special Reserva, Priorat being a perhaps lesser known but expensive and high-quality Spanish wine, making up the 2024 batch of this beer. I vividly recall meeting it for the first time at the Kerstbierfestival in Essen (old location) in 2002, at the time a brilliant solution to process the overfermented Oerbier bottles after the switch from Rodenbach to other yeast - anyway, long story short: this formula was repeated for about fifteen years in the same type of wine barrels (Bordeaux) before the brewery started venturing into other types of wine, and I am still working my way backwards in the series to find out which ones. Medium sized, yellowish pale beige, stable, lightly lacing head over a misty dark burgundy brown robe with caramel hue. Aroma of toast and - oddly - smoked bacon until it fades, hard caramel, roasted pecan nuts, reduced red wine sauce, grape skins, red plum, oak wood, beech nuts, autumn leaves, lingonberries, very dry red wine. Red-fruity onset, red plum, sour grapes and dried blackberries, lively carbonation, full vinous mouthfeel; brown-bready and caramelly core enhanced by a bitterish toasty element (which Oerbier did not have originally), working its way into a complex, layered finish with sherry- and obviously red wine-like alcohol flavour and warmth, lingering toasty bitterness, a bit of earthy hoppiness and tannic woodiness and background red fruit and mulled wine accents. This one clearly reflects the change in the malt bill Oerbier has undergone several years ago (around 2020 I estimate) in this roasty bitter effect, but perhaps more importantly, it shows the full potential of Priorat wine barrel ageing in beer, something we - again - must attribute to the adventurous and free spirit of the Dolle Brouwers, one of the greatest Belgian breweries in the modern era.

Embarrassingly, I don't know much about Priorato vino but I need to check it out, as it's known to be fairly minerally. Another great Oerbier SR!