Stille Nacht Reserva
(has 5 batches)

Thanks Tim! Beautiful. Great aroma, marzipan, Xmas fruit. Taste is great. Bit vinous, beautiful, light sourness, booze is great, pear, fruity, sweet and lovely.

The newest version in this fantastic series, the first one ever in Belgium to be aged on wooden barrels that previously contained another beverage; this time the regular Stille Nacht was aged for three years on red Bordeaux wine barrels and then matured in the bottle before being released to the public (in August 2019). I was lucky enough to have a sample of it straight from the barrel when it was still maturing, back in January 2018, and was eager to try it bottle-conditioned so I just had to get my hands on a few bottles. Pours with an irregularly edged, eggshell-white, mousy and frothy, 'interruptedly' lacing, slowly opening but generally stable head and warm pale amberish-tinged peach blonde robe with strong and attractive visual sparkling. Rich bouquet of champagne (weirdly perhaps, but strongly), orange peel, white grapes, old dusty wooden casks, mandarin-flavoured candy, apricot 'jenever', noticeable carbon dioxide, yellow plums, minerals, stewed pear, rosé wine, cookies, roses, cloves and a faint whiff of stronger, near-medicinal phenols, but not to the extent that it bothers me - at all. Sweet and fruity onset, peach, ripe pineapple, blue plum and some gooseberry tartness but gently so - with a very grape-like presence from the start lying over all this like a blanket; carbonation is unsurprisingly very lively but quite refined, as in cava, with a full yet very supple, remarkably lean (for this ABV) mouthfeel. Sweetbready and lightly caramelly maltiness, orange filling from Pim's or Jaffa Cake biscuits, very champagne-like aspect (as in sweet rosé champagne rather than 'brut') and dryish woody tannins, yet relatively gently so. Cookie- and rosé champagne-like flavours linger in the end, when a warming glow of soft, liqueurish alcohol accentuates the beer's sweetness rather than its bitterness (hops remain very much subdued). The spicy and lightly medicinal phenols that were detectable in the nose, return as well, but again not to the point where they bother me. As always in this series, and I had every version that was made so far, the barrel treatment has thoroughly altered Stille Nacht's general make-up and has turned it into a very different, much 'deeper' beer, in this case with a remarkable 'rosé champagne'-like effect - simply said, the wine barrel treatment has turned the hefty Stille Nacht into an elegant, slender apéritif beer. I was not expecting this outcome at all; seen its ABV, this beer feels remarkably light and gracile, very different from previous versions. This begs for cellaring - I have to know how this 'provisiebier par excellence' ages over time. Very exciting - and to think a barrel aged version of Dulle Teve is allegedly on its way, too...

Sampled at Ace & Kees. Bottle 2010. Hazy orange with offwhite head. Big sweet malts, apricot, stone fruit, white raisans, light rusty, nutmeg, grape most. Big sweet, moderate bitter and some dry wood tartness. Full body, light oily and lean. Very nice.

Sampled at Ace & Kees. Bottle. Hazy orange with offwhite head. Big sweet malts, apricot, stone fruit, white raisans, light rusty, nutmeg, grape most. Big sweet, moderate bitter and some dry wood tartness. Full body, light oily and lean. Very nice.

Sampled at Ace & Kees. Bottle. Hazy orange with offwhite head. Big sweet malts, apricot, stone fruit, white raisans, light rusty, nutmeg, grape most. Big sweet, moderate bitter and some dry wood tartness. Full body, light oily and lean. Very nice.

Sampled at Ace&Kees festival. Bit hazy darker golden with reddish hue and light beige head. Sweet malts, red wine, marzipan, soft booze, caramel, light herbs and yeast, dry oak, yoghurt, red grapes, soft CO2. Quite sweet, medium bitter and light tart. Full bodied with fizzy carbonation and light booze. Awesome.

Bottle at Bumba. Aroma of whine, oak and malt. Taste has nice boozy fruit, malt, citrus, tropical fruit, vineus fruit, oak and some complex spices. Very elegant and flavorful.