La Rulles Cuvee Meilleurs Voeux

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

This beer is a slowish gusher. A careful pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a two finger thick, pale amber / tan colored head. The beer is a dark red to amber color that shows a chunky (lots of floaties), red hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells fruity with notes of a sweet varietal cherry, plum, fresh figs, a berry note as well as some Brandy like notes and something that definitely reminds me of a red-wine grape. There is a sweet spiciness in the nsoe as well with notes of tannic mahleb, a hint of sweet clove, some earthy / light musty notes plus there is lots of toasted malt charcer in the finish. This last contributes a nice bread crust character, some musty caramelized brown bread notes as well as something like biscuits with some berry jam. The aroma is pretty nice, it could perhaps use a touch more balance, but it is pretty complex and interesting.

The beer tastes pretty dry considering the rich fruity aroma; there is just enough sweetness here to make fruit flavors significant, even the dominant note in the flavor. This has an ample carbonation, but it is not too much; the prickly effervescence offsets the creamy texture quite nicely. Flavors of cherry, dark berries and a red-wine jam-berry note round out the fruit flavors in this beer. There is lots of malt / grain character here too though, especially in the finish; I get a distinct biscuit notes, a toasted lightly browned grain character and a touch of malt bitterness and astringency in the finish. This has a low hop presence all around as I only notice a touch of hop bitterness in the finish.

While the carbonation adds a nice texture offset, the beer seems to not be able to stand up to the accompanying carbonic acid at times. This is a nice beer, even if all the flavors doen’t seem to come together perfectly all the time. This is quite complex all around, if perhaps a touch too. The nose works a bit better than the flavor and it is definitely a beer that gets one in the holiday frame of mind.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottled@Kerstbierfestival, Essen. Brownish amber colour, not much head. Aroma is spices, alcohol asnd plum. Flavour is spices, malts, some hops and also some slight vegetables.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Draught at Akkurat, Stockholm. Hazy reddish brown eith a firm beige foam. Toasted malts, almond-paste, nuts and pepper in the yeasty aroma. Malty and yeasty full flavour of nuts, fudge and marzipan with crisp hoppy undertones. Mild pepper, dried oranges and almond-paste in the aftertaste

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

LA Rulles Cuvee Meilleurs Voeux poured a dark reddish brown colored body with a medium size head. Aroma was sweet, and malty. The taste was caramel, malts, slightly spiced. Very drankable and smooth while not losing its mouthfeel.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Poured a dark copper color with average size head. Solid lacing that lasted till after the beer was gone. Aroma was of carmel malts and yeast. Flavor was carmel malts little bitter to it and mabye some citrus. Nice christmas beer.