8.2%
Regularly we bring out a new vintage of Druif — it’s the beer where it all started. A wild ale made with organic red wine grapes (harvested in 2021, Mátra region, Hungary). This year’s vintage is made solely with Kékfrankos grapes. A perfect grape variety which blends very well with our wild ales. We used a blend of different wild ales (approx. aged for two years in wooden barrels), to let referment and macerated further for another year on the wine grapes. The long maceration with the grapes gives the beer more structure and layeredness in taste, since the skins of the grapes have had the time to release their tannins and their taste. With this vintage we tried to focus on the interaction of the slightly more pronounced bitterness and delicate fruity aromas from the aged hops we used in the beer, and on the tannins from the wine grapes. In our opinion, this resulted in a very well balanced wild ale, blurring the boundaries between beer and (natural) wine perfectly.
In its aroma, Druif (2022) showcases strawberries and ripe peaches together with dark cherries, a slight hint of almond and a touch of wood from the oak barrels. Taste-wise it starts with the typical dark cherry and blackberry notes of Kékfrankos. This bold fruitiness is accompanied by a gentle sourness and a fairly dry, almost port-like finish. In the aftertaste the tannic part of blackberry seeds and almond is present, together with a touch of creamy oak.
At this moment the balance between the base beer and the fruit is perfect, but this vintage has a good potential for ageing in the bottle. In a year or more, the tannins will soften, and the base beer and the barrel’s taste will integrate even better, but in honesty, we recommend to drink our fruited beers up to 3-4 years after bottling date, to get the right expression of the fruit itself.
Store our beers upright or lying down in a cool, dark place. Our beers are best enjoyed between 12 and 14 degrees Celsius.
-Tommie Sjef
