Charger's Wine (and Beer) Club

[Charger]

This time we have porter from Thornbridge Riverside Brewery in Bakewell United Kingdom called Market Porter.

This deep dark brown porter has flavours of chocolate and coffee,  some sweetness yet with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
This is maybe bit lighter than most porters and has a over all flavour profile more like a dark lager than porter, but honestly that's not a bad thing. It still has enough character to stand out.

Porter's can be bit tricky beers to fully enjoy sometimes but this has a nice over all palate and proves that the Brits can do porter quite well too.


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[Charger]

Time for a proper old school Charger's Wine Club.
That's right we're going right back to where it all started from....US based wines.

Been a long time since I've visted the liquor store and had to check the US section of the wine shelf and look and behold we had a new wine so naturally I had to pick it up.

So now we have 1924 Limited Edition Double Black Red Wine Blend of 2018 from Gnarly Head Winery in Lodi, California.

The blend consists of Zinfandel, Merlot and Syrah grapes. This medium bodied and medium tannic red has flavours of wild cherries, a hint of blackberry and even some chocolate sweetness.
The taste is quite bold and rich and it also leaves a slight lingering crisp almost spicy and acidic aftertaste.
I've had a wine from Gnarly Head before and if memory serves me that wasn't all that great but this is an improvement. Not among the best wines from California but most certainly not among the weakest either espcially considering the price of only 14€(16$).
 
As usual (if you still remember) instead of a star rating wines get the wine magazine rating between 85 and 95.
The 1924 is supposed to echo back to the prohibition era with it's taste and style...well I'll have to take their word on that as I wasn't around back then... But all in all this is a good wine that has a bunch of different things going on. It's not suberb by any means but it also is not just average either.
So I'm giving it a strong 91.
Worth a try if you like blended reds...and maybe even if you don't.

[Vyn]

Great write-up. The era of Prohibition always makes me think of grain alcohol, not wine, but I guess if that's their marketing ploy then more power to them.

[Charger]

Great write-up. The era of Prohibition always makes me think of grain alcohol, not wine, but I guess if that's their marketing ploy then more power to them.

Thanks!

Yeah same here, but I guess wine production was going on at the time too. Lot of people I think were making their own wines and that was the birth of many winery's in various states I believe.

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club - Return of the Beer Edition!

This time we have a stout from Saltaire brewery in Shipley, West Yorkshire UK called Saltaire Triple Choc.
Like the name suggests this dark cola colored stout has an obvious taste of chocolate with hints of coffee and nuts as well as a nice sweet maltiness.
Make no mistake this is a rather sweet beer, not overly sugary or anything but the sweetness is quite evident especially in the very smooth and gentle after taste.

All in all a very enjoyable beer. As obvious as the chocolate taste and the sweetness are they still don't over power the stout and you still clearly know that you're drinking an honest stout and that some smart ass hasn't mixed Bailey's with beer.

If you're a fan of sweet stouts this one is for you.


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[Zzzptm]

Fun fact: during prohibition, consumption of sacramental wine shot through the roof...

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition Part 1.

Well it's the official start of the christmas season today so ofcourse that calls for a christmas beer and to start this festive season off we have a domestic beer called Joulu Porter (Christmas Porter) from Waahto Brewery in Savonlinna Finland.

This very dark brown cola colored porter has tastes of coffee and strong roasted maltiness. Still quite smooth to drink and has no unnecessary extras in the flavour, but is actually quite a nice pure relatively basic porter. Nothing all too christmassy about it, which is a good thing. But for a season beer I suppose you'd expect something special.

Still this is a very tasty porter with an alcohol content of 5.5% and it again proves that small breweries can do some fine products here in Finland as well.


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[Zzzptm]

^ Suck a peppermint after drinking the beer. Instant Christmassyness!

[Charger]

No I don't think I will.

[Zzzptm]

No I don't think I will.

Do it for science!

[Charger]

[Charger]

This time we have domestic beer again from Kotka Steam Brewery in Kotka Finland called Steam Beer Lager.

This murky amber brown colored lager has a mild citrus flavour and some bitterness with mild hoppiness.
Steam beer a whole different style of beer made from lager yeasts and fermented in a warmer temperature than normally. The techinique was invented in California (or in Virginia based on the sources) back in the mid 19th century. Kotka Steam Brewery says they are making this as loyally to the old methods as possible.

Honestly though there isn't anything too different about this compared to your normal lager. It maybe has a bit more bitter and heftier taste but I'm not sure how much of that is from the special brewing technique.
Being bit more bitter this isn't your average lager so it isn't quite so easily drinkable, but the flavour profile is pretty good and the bitterness isn't over powering.

A good slightly special small brewery product.
Special mention from the funky looking can. The sailor eagle (Kotka = Eagle) logo is what made me buy this.


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[Zzzptm]

Yeah, that eagle is the star of the show!

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club CHRISTMAS Beer edition pt 2.

This time again we have a domestic beer from Malmgård Brewery in Loviisa Finland simply called Malmgård Jouluolut (Christmas beer).

This very dark brown almost black in color beer has flavours of plum, caramel and some maltiness.
There is almost a stouty presense here which gives it a nice balanced feel. The plum and the caramel sweetness gives this I suppose a slight christmassy feel to it but it's not overpowering and as a blind test you might not even realise this is a season beer it is that stout-like which indeed is a good thing but there is also that "something" that makes it bit different from your average stouts. But at the same time nothing that really raises it to anykind of top category either.

All in all though a very good season beer that you could have out of season too.


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[Zzzptm]

^ Seasonal things that are also good out of season make for some of the best seasonal things, in my view.