REVIEW 69: GRANDE RÉSERVE 17

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Canada

BREWERY:  Unibroue

STYLE:  Strong Dark Ale

ABV:  10.0%

PURCHASE:  N/A (gift)

SERVING:  25.4-oz. bottle, poured into St. Bernardus branded goblet. My standard 20-second pour produced a head of only about half an inch; my faster 10-second pour got three-quarters. Not very big, but man did it last. It didn't want to leave.

APPEARANCE:  Deep caramel-chestnut tone. Beige head. Eye-catching; seems to glow on its own without much light. Splotchy lacing.

BOUQUET:  Fruity above all else, mainly raisin and appleskin; other dark fruit essences like plum and fig seem evident, as does a touch of citrus. Faint spice notes round things out nicely; they include, namely, pepper and clove, but also seeming traces of ginger and cinnamon. Maybe even allspice. 

PALATE:  Moderate to slightly heavy body with a fair amount of carbonation. Fruity front palate, pretty much a hybrid of raisin and sour apple. Finish is strong on the alcohol but gives rise to a very welcoming and complex aftertaste of blended spice, namely pepper and clove, but complemented with what seems to be notes of allspice, cinnamon, and maybe ginger. The fumy alcohol presence remains, which doesn't necessarily detract from, but doesn't exactly enhance, the experience. You could say it's a bit too "boozy" on the back end. Fortunately, it's balanced out by a nice plum-raisin-fig resonance.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Grande Reserve 17. So named because it was introduced in 2007, on the 17th anniversary of its brewer, Unibroue, from Quebec (the makers of La Fin du Monde). A trappist, Belgian-style beer from a Québécois brewery. 

Is it just me, or is Quebec becoming a hub for the production of fine goods? I play a Seagull acoustic guitar. Relatively inexpensive and made in Quebec. It plays just as well as virtually any Martin, Taylor, Gibson, or high-end Ovation model. Likewise with this beer. It's neck-and-neck with the Chimay lineup, and is only a tweak away from competing with the true Belgian abbey heavyweights, such as St. Bernardus. 

Guitars. Beer. What will Quebec give us next? An expansion NHL hockey team? 




GRADE:  A-