Holiday Drinks – Wine, whisky and beer

This summer holiday we went to the Westcoast of Denmark for a change. I chose a few different half size wine bottles and we bought a variety of beers. Especially the non-alcoholic beers were great.

I really love the Tement ‘house style’. With the village-level wines, there is some residual fruitiness, with notes reminiscent of passion fruit. However, these notes are soon kept in check by a pronounced acidity. The aftertaste is where the wine’s minerality really shines through. Overall, this is a great wine from South Styria.

First, I opened the Tement Ehrenhausen Sauvignon Blanc, a village-level wine made from grapes grown in their best vineyards, but from younger vines. It ages for 18 months on the lees in a combination of large oak casks and stainless steel tanks.

Some Northern Italy Red

Next, I opened a bottle of G.D. Vajra Albe Barolo. It had been a while since I last enjoyed a Northern Italy red. The Albe consists of grapes grown at an altitude between 380 and 480 metres. After a long maceration in open vats, the wine is aged in barrels with a capacity of up to 75 hectolitres.

I do get why northern Italian red wines, especially Barolos, are so popular. Initially, the wine is pure ‘juice’ with a hint of volatile notes. However, when exposed to more air, the fruit flavour shifts from cherries towards cassis, and some forest floor notes become noticeable. The 15 % ABV certainly makes itself known, with notes of Amarena cherries, cherry liqueur and crème de cassis.

No ABV-beer

For a change, we also tried some non-alcoholic beers from Mikkeller. The Drinking in the Sun wheat beer had surprisingly pronounced hop notes, with only a hint of creamy wheat malt flavour. The Weird Weather, however, was an excellent non-alcoholic choice, with fruity hops that reminded me of passionfruit, as well as hints of citrus and coriander.

And some regular beer

Last but not least, I tried the Mikkeller Golden Iris, a Belgian-style blonde ale. I was very impressed by its complex flavour, while the alcohol content was refreshingly low. I detected notes of banana and pear with a hint of bitter hops and creamy notes.

Distillery visit

We also visited the Stauning Whisky Distillery and tried their regular bottlings as well as some special ones. However, we will cover this in more detail in a separate article.