Cuvée Sofie Schaarbeekse kriek. 28 months aged in Hungarian oak barrel from Domaine Noelat Michel red wine.
The fourth Alvinne Fellowship ale, a 'kriek', but that is putting it in an oversimplified way: what we have here, is Cuvée Sofie aged on wine barrels for two years with the renowned 'Schaarbeekse' sour cherries added. Tasted in comparison with the fifth Fellowship ale, which is the same thing, but based on Cuvée Sofie aged for one year instead of two years. This 'old' version produces some white, large and loose bubbles upon pouring, but no real head is formed, let alone retained; beautiful vermillion red robe, misty with a coppery-bronze tinge, looking like old cherry wine. Intense, noble aroma: cherry wine, lots of vanilla-scenting oak wood, candied cherry and even marzipan, raspberry vinegar, sour yoghurt, blue grape peel, old tawny port, cherry stones, old crumbling biscuit, herborized tree leaves, barnyard. Intense sour cherries open the palate, flanked by mildly astringent cherry skin effects and with a vinegary acidity to it that is, as it befits a great Alvinne sour, countered by cherry fructose softness; soft carbonation adds to an altogether 'moelleux' mouthfeel. Lovely rounded bready and even slightly honeyish maltiness is dried by both the fruit acidity and lactic tartness, colorful and leading to a complex finish with a retronasal feast of cherry pie, vanilla, old oak and marzipan effects, highlighted by a warming, madera-flavored alcohol glow that binds all elements together. Sour but complex and nowhere too harsh, this is a prestigious 'kriek' in all respects, glowing like the leaves of the Laurelin tree and fiery like its fruit. Alvinne pulls it off once again - and clearly comparing this one with its younger counterpart is a must, with this one being the somewhat more sedate and noble one of the two, like a mighty old tree standing proudly next to its younger offspring. Majestic cherry beer, one to sip slowly in order to enjoy its full complexity.