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Wine and Beer Enthusiasts
- Thread starter albertfallickwa
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Enjoying a glass (or two) of white wine - a blend of Chardonnay and Viognier - from the Pays d'Oc, in France.
Was able to finally crack open the the holiday edition of St. Bernardus Christmas Ale. I know it is a few months past Christmas, but man this one still tasted really good. Had myself the big bottle!!
A good way to keep that Christmas cheer flowing!
A terrific beer, - I haven't had the St Bernardus Christmas Ale in absolutely ages.
Do enjoy.
If memory serves, it is somewhat akin to an even more robust version of their legendary St Bernardus Abt 12.
I'm usually very omnivorous when it comes to enjoying different types of beer, but these days I'm finding myself going back to basics and renewing my appreciation for the classic German lagers and Czech pilsners. No gimmicks, just high quality ingredients brewed the right way.
Weihenstephaner is my go-to German brewer. Now I am currently savoring a six-pack of Paulaner Lager. I guess we'll see how long it takes for tariffs to kick in and push imports out of my budget. As much as I've enjoyed good IPAs over the decades, I'm kind of over the IPA monoculture that's taken over American microbrewing.
Weihenstephaner is my go-to German brewer. Now I am currently savoring a six-pack of Paulaner Lager. I guess we'll see how long it takes for tariffs to kick in and push imports out of my budget. As much as I've enjoyed good IPAs over the decades, I'm kind of over the IPA monoculture that's taken over American microbrewing.
Czech beers, German beers, and Belgian classics are unsurpassable, to my mind.
They remain perennial classics for a very good reason.
Exactly.
Mine also; nothing comes close.
Enjoy.
Agreed.
I have come to realise that those over-hopped IPAs are a lot less to my taste, or the preference of my palate, than are the German and Belgian (and Czech) classic beers.
Was able to share a few really good stouts this past weekend.
Another Dose - Horus Aged Ales: 2023, aged. Excellent!
Scatter Signal - Imperial / Double Pastry Stout, 2022, aged. Excellent!
And then a few from St. Paddy's Day
Donna's Pickle Beer... yup, won't try that one again! But it was fun.
Media Puerta Mexican Lager - Really good! Crisp.
Coleman Stout - Irish Dry... really good. Had several!
Another Dose - Horus Aged Ales: 2023, aged. Excellent!
Scatter Signal - Imperial / Double Pastry Stout, 2022, aged. Excellent!
And then a few from St. Paddy's Day
Donna's Pickle Beer... yup, won't try that one again! But it was fun.
Media Puerta Mexican Lager - Really good! Crisp.
Coleman Stout - Irish Dry... really good. Had several!
I have never ever heard of any of those beers, but they do sound intriguing.
Do enjoy.
Enjoying a glass (or two, perhaps three) of Pouilly-Fuissé, an elegant white wine from Burgundy, in France.
Slightly OT: it is weird to see @Scepticalscribe in all thread about savouring and enjoying life. I like you, unknowingly.
Not really.
Among other things, I have worked in some of the worst places on the planet over a number of years.
This is merely to offer some context for the fact that while I have long loved (courtesy a period in Paris as an adolescent with a wonderful and welcoming French family who taught me to appreciate and truly recognise the value of such things) what we might call "the good things in life" (at least, from the perspective of a cultured, educated, European background), it took some time in some of the worst places on the planet for me to realise that savouring and enjoying life is all about relishing, marvelling at, thrilling to, and taking the time to savour, appreciate, enjoy, the small (but wonderful) pleasures (to my mind, too many of us focus only on the "big things") that life can offer:
These include: A (really good) cup of coffee, curling up with an excellent beer in a corner of a nice cosy pub, fine wines from Burgundy (and other seriously good wines), artisan beers, serious cheese, a concert, a play, a visit to the cinema, a trip to an excellent restaurant, savouring the products of an excellent bakery, paying a visit to an excellent bookshop, being able to take a walk in a nice spot (rural or urban), and, in the old days, browsing the serried racks of CDs (or LPs) in those wonderful, old style, music stores, or record shops, whiling away many an afternoon mulling over musical choices......
Ah.
Thank you.
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While white wines from Burgundy are almost exclusively made from Chardonnay, in Burgundy, they tend to be a lot less oaked, and considerably more "flinty" and "steely" than can be a found in wines made from Chardonnay that are produced elsewhere.
Personally, (and I quite like rich, robust and complex white wines - and will happily imbibe oaked Chardonnays form the New World), these days, one of my favourite wines - if not my all time favourite style - tends to be those exceedingly steely, yet wonderfully subtle and exquisitely nuanced - white wines from Burgundy, such as Chablis, Pouilly-Fuissé, Meursault, and so on.
Actually, until a little over a decade ago, I would have told anyone who cared to listen that my favourite wines were those red wines that were rich, robust, (highly alcoholic) yet were also gloriously smooth - such as Ripasso, and those excellent smooth vintages from the Côtes du Rhône.
An invitation to a private wine tasting twelve years ago was something of an epiphany.
"not a daring wine, but a safe wine."
I am particularly fond of just about any red Rioja, even if it is not actually stamped Denominación de Origen Calificada . . . dryly spectacular!
A handful of years ago, my Sister (semi-native to Napa/Sonoma) brought a lovely red to dinner (it was something like USD2K/bottle her cost) . . . I believe she still harbors a lingering distaste with my two-fingers worth of blithe "Oh; that's ok."
We all have our tastes, do we not?
The thing about Chardonnay is that it is a very forgiving wine, and - even allowing for the over-oaked versions we encountered in some of the New World wines during, for example, the 1990s - it is difficult to produce a really bad one."not a daring wine, but a safe wine."
Now, it can - and does - suffer from mediocrity, yes, but those steely dry, almost with a "mineral complexion" Chardonnays from Burgundy - such as Chablis, the superb Meursault, Pouilly-Fuissé, among others - can be astonishingly good, and are now among my favourite wines.
Long may you enjoy them.
Sometimes, what is considered excellent can be underwhelming (I recall experiencing that very same sensation about a well regarded (and all too enthusiastically recommended) red wine that cost almost $100/£100/€100, a wine I was offered to sample at a wine tasting around a decade ago).
However, when a well regarded wine lives up to its reputation, then, that can be an incredible experience.
Indeed we do.
Staying with Helles for tonight. Fancy stuff will be drank on Thursday again.
Enjoy.
I must admit that I am more than partial to the Helles brewed by Weihenstephaner.
In my personal opinion, Weihenstephaner is acceptable, but Tegernseer and especially Tucher are world class. Of course, this is a matter of taste. (I had a Weiss Rössl Helles for my last beer today. But that's also more acceptable than great).
I think this is something overlooked especially with te domination of "soda-pop" beers the mass produced ones that are served almost freezing
I do like a cold lager on a hot day but even then not just above freezing and especially for the amber, dark, IPAs etc.! You lose the flavour (he wrote preaching to the choir).