Untied Brewing Company Forever’s End New England India Pale Ale
A brand new IPA that my local favorite brewery, Untied Brewing Company, just released. This newest one is called Forever’s End and is 7.3% vol, it’s also New England IPA.
Untied Brewing Company Forever’s End New England India Pale Ale
Golden yellow, cloudy and thick white foam.
Nose : citrus, tropical and stone fruits. Very fruity on the nose, very pleasant nose.
In mouth : a slight bitterness opening then the fruits move in. Fruits are on the apricot and yellow stone fruit side like yellow plum, apricot and peach or nectarine. A stone fruit especially apricot note lingers and stays as a finale bouquet of apricot. This is another excellent New England IPA from Untied. I am going to buy more and stock up !
Untied Brewing Company Forever’s End New England India Pale Ale
When I go to France and stay at my parents’ place in the French Riviera, I like to enjoy local wines, that is Provence wines, and one of my favorite wineries there is Chateau de Saint Martin for their Cotes de Provence and other regional appellations. I have reviewed a couple of their wines over the years in this blog, their Cotes de Provence rosés and red, which you can read here :
Upon one of my recent stays, while my mother was still alive, we took a little day trip to the Provence back country in the Var to visit the little village of Taradeau, which also happens to be the hometown of the Chateau de Saint Martin winery. I couldn’t pass on paying a little visit to the winery that day, to buy some cases of wine of course. I bought a case of red and a case of rosé (both Nº2 de Saint Martin). They also had a wine in a box called Monsieur Rouge, from a lesser appellation (Vin de Pays de Mediterrannée) but it sounded a nice non expensive wine for every day meals, so I decided to give it a try.
Vin de Pays de Méditerranee Monsieur Rouge by Chateau de Saint-Martin
So this one is just a IGP, Indication Geographique Protegee, protected geographical indication, and not the higher end AOC or AOP (protected origin appellation) which has stricter rules and standards. It is made in Taradeau, Var department by Chateau de Saint-Marin and per its name, it’s a red wine. Conditioning is in a box or « cubi » as they call it in France, a short for Cubitainer which a registered brand name for this type of packaging.
Non vintage. 13% vol.
Deep red leaning towards dark pink with purple hues and wide pinkish rim. Short irregular legs.
Nose : red fruits, fruit esters.
In mouth : herbal, some bitterness, spices, wood, vanilla. All in all spicy and woody.
This wine is best enjoyed cold or cool and we liked to enjoy it cooled down from the fridge in the late summer, early fall season when I bought it.
After tasting we enjoyed it with artisan craft gnocchi in tomato sauce.
You can watch the video of that little day trip with my parents and my son, here on my YouTube channel. In this video is also the visit we paid to the Chateau de Saint Martin winery.
A short video that I just published on my YouTube channel : cooking creamy pasta with shrimps, adapted from a recipe sent by De Lallo (Italian food importer located in Eastern USA). I adapted the recipe that would call from sauces they sell and that I didn’t have nor didn’t want to buy : for example the dried tomato-basil sauce they called for, I replaced it with tomato sauce + some basil concentrate. I also changed the pasta they called for, to some Barilla’s Cellentani pasta.
Dinner was served with an excellent all around simple rosé wine from California made by Apothic, which is one of my go to rosé wines furthermore for a reasonable price ($10 at my usual wine joint).
I have reviewed this wine of course and you can read the review here, even if it was a while ago it’s still accurate.
Untied Brewing Company Flourished by Force New England India Pale Ale
A brand new IPA that my local favorite brewery, Untied Brewing Company, just released. This new one is called Flourished by Force with a Roman army in full swing on the label of the can, 6.9% vol, and is also New England IPA.
Untied Brewing Company Flourished by Force New England India Pale AleUntied Brewing Company Flourished by Force New England India Pale Ale
Yellow, very cloudy and thin white foam.
Nose : crisp and fresh, citrus mainly, some stone fruits.
In mouth : citrus, stone fruits, mainly apricot even some apricot jam notes. It’s very round and smooth and very fruity. Super delicious ! I love it so much that I will go back tomorrow and buy some more to stock up before it runs out.
Untied Brewing Company Flourished by Force New England India Pale Ale
A lighter beer for the summer that my favorite local brewery, Untied Brewing Company, just released, I was back home (from my travels to France, more wine and beer reviews from my tastings there to come) in time to try it shortly after it was released. This is a Bavarian style pilsner lighter in taste and alcohol, 5.2% vol, perfect for the hot months ahead.
Untied Brewing Company Pine Shore Pilsner
Bright golden yellow, not cloudy, thick whitish foam.
Nose : crisp and fresh a expected, malt plus yeast.
In mouth : malt and fresh bitterness and a lingering bitterness in the end. All in all very refreshing for the hot summer weather to come, but still with some oomph. Well done once again !
Domaine Francois Schwach Muehlforst Riesling Alsace France 2018
During my stay in France at my father’s, we were invited by neighbors and good friends of his for a dinner that was an excuse to an Alsace wine tasting. They had just come back from a trip to Alsace and brought back some wine with them. This special wine they wanted to share with us, is a Riesling but from a special lot, Muehlforst, meaning all the grapes for this particular wine come from that special plot of land. Thus this is a higher end riesling wine, like a single barrel would be to a whiskey.
Domaine Francois Schwach Muehlforst Riesling Alsace France 2018
13% vol. Under cork, vintage 2018. 100% Riesling grapes, Muelforst plot, Alsace appellation. This wine was tasted in the traditional green stemmed Alsace wineglasses.
Pale yellow with pale translucent rim. No legs.
Nose : honey and citrus, a bit herbal and mineral.
In mouth : slightly fizzy, citrus and herbal, a slight bitterness in an otherwise well rounded and excellent wine.
This was the wine we had as aperitif and that followed us along a homemade all Alsatian dinner, starting with shredded cheese salad and a meat pie with spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, all traditional Alsatian dishes.
If you add up to this delicious wine, a delightful meal, an excellent company and a very good and entertaining conversation, all this made for a wonderful evening. Plus those friends are literally next door to my father’s, like 20 yards away, so we didn’t have to worry about driving and could enjoy as much wine as we liked.
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey
I have already reviewed a couple of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskeys, as it is one of my favorite American whiskeys, namely their regular Number 7 version, plus the two recent whiskeys, the bonded ones, they have issued, read here : https://wineinamerica.wordpress.com/tag/jack-daniels/
Before the bonded versions, they already had a high end version of their whiskey, a single barrel, that I have been enjoying for years if not decades but never reviewed in this blog. So here is my review :
47% vol.
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey
Golden amber with light orange brown hues with a lot of tiny legs.
Nose : fruity, pear, a lot of fruit ester high notes, the main fruit note is pear, then some brown notes and leather.
In mouth : warm, spicy, caramel, vanilla, custard and creamy, the fruit notes from the nose vanish rapidly and only the pure vanilla caramel and custard notes remain. Some hints of spices too, with a slight bitterness in the end with some herbal and licorice notes.
This is excellent ! I have been enjoying this single barrel for a long time and it’s always a pleasure. I always have a bottle in my whiskey/whisky collection actually, as soon as the bottle is going low I buy a new one.
Of course it’s several notches above their « regular » number 7 whiskey, as one could expect for a single barrel. The number 7 is very good but this one is in another league.
It’s on a par with the two newer bonded ones but I prefer slightly this one of the 3 (Single barrel, bonded and triple mash bonded). Highly recommended, should be part of every whisky collection.
This one is a lager we tried during the summer but I never got to publish the review.
It’s a flavored lager (with salt and lime) made by the Stone Brewery in San Diego, CA. They introduce it as a cerveza and with the lime and salt in addition, plus the bottle design, it definitely has a Mexican vibe.
4.7% vol, relatively light in alcohol content, meant for the hot season.
Stone Buenaveza Salt and Lime Lager
Bright golden yellow with thin white foam, not cloudy at all as can usually be expected with lagers.
Nose : typical lager, also some shandy notes (due to the lime), lemonade.
Mouth : regular lager, nothing special. A bit salty as we could expect but no taste of lime, even though I was smelling some lemon or lemonade on the nose but it doesn’t translate to the taste. It’s a bit disappointing. I was expecting a blast of lime actually. Other than that it’s a decent regular lager but don’t expect the tequila lime and salt feel to it (that I was expecting myself with the name and design).
Some bitterness and salt at the end. Maybe the point is to make you more thirsty with the salt taste as a finale ?
All in all, nothing exceptional, nothing to write home about, a decent lager, that’s all. Fine if you find it in a bar but for home we have better choices for lagers.
Untied Brewing Company Clutch Shift Throttle New England India Pale Ale
A brand new IPA that my local favorite brewery, Untied Brewing Company, just released. This new one is called Clutch Shift Throttle with a distinctive and well designed label on the can, 6.8% vol, and is also New England IPA.
Untied Brewing Company Clutch Shift Throttle New England India Pale Ale
Deep yellow, very cloudy, with thin white foam.
Nose : mainly citrus, crisp and fresh.
In mouth : citrus, delicate resin, a bit of cereals, some bitterness that gives it some oomph but well rounded feeling soft on the palate. A little more resin taste in the after mouth. Once more an excellent beer !
I am going back to buy a couple of packs this coming week to stock up as it is so delicious.
This one is not specially aged and is their regular version that was re-released recently and that comes for the first time in aluminum can.
10.2% vol.
Pitch black in glass with a medium dark beige foam.
Untied Brewing Company Left in the Dark Imperial Stout
Nose : dried fruits such as prunes and raisins, caramel, a lot of brown notes of course : vanilla and coffee and a hint of dark chocolate too.
In mouth : not bitter, very smooth and round. Some dark chocolate, coffee and some dried fruits (prunes and raisins). Very fruity on top of the brown notes actually. With 10.2% vol it’s a very serious beer that would sustain a meal (should ! ) and / or a dessert like a creamy vanilla dessert or some chocolate cake. It’s a great sipping beer too (after eating something though, to resist to the high alcohol content).
Delicious. I am not usually too much into stout beers specially ones with high alcohol content but I can see myself having this one times to times because it’s so delicious with this extra fruitiness that reminds me of dried fruit cakes or even Christmas pudding style of cakes. It would pair nicely with one of those.
Wine in America 