Beer – #1,096 – Deep Creek – Wildwood Sauvage
Deep Creek Wildwood Sauvage. An absolute hit at the recent beer festival I believe, or want to believe. ‘Recent’ in this instance was about 10 months ago, so many good beers between then and now of course. But this week was strange, and I’m too indecisive to choose beers on line for a click and collect, and remembered I had this in the fridge, so all is not lost.
French for wild
Deep Creek Wildwood Sauvage 2020 – a 750ml bottle of a beer that is 7% ABV, making this is 4.1 drinks in NZ and around 198 calories a serve size.
Wildwood Sauvage is brewed just north of 🇳🇿 Auckland, New Zealand and is in the style that is a Sour / Wild Beer – Flavored beer.
Sauvage is French for wild, but in their language, it seems so much softer, and that’s what this wild brew is.
This beer is 100% Brettanomyces, and pours a vibrant straw gold, with lively, yet soft flavours of pineapple, baked stonefruit and coconut.
The Sauvage Brettanomyces ferment adds layers of complexity, finishing with a fresh, dry bite.
So, What could possibly go wrong? Apart from it having been in the fridge too long? Hopefully not much.
Well the aroma is lovely, that delightful cider like thing.
The pour is drop-dead gorgeous, a brilliant orange glow with a fluff head that is a thing to behold in bright white. Aside from the expected aroma there’s not a lot going on.
There’s this certain dryness around this that sits easy over a lovely thought our lever of bitterness. Fancifully I think there’s a sweetness in the mix too.
What to think though? What was I expecting? I expected a Saison and this is that, it a very on point that. Barrel Aged? Well there’s an uncertain dryness about this in places, I’m putting that to the barreling. Coconut? Not really, unless I don’t understand coconut of course, which is always possible. It’ll warm in the glass and it will come to me I’m sure. The power of positive thinking.
There’s something about Saison beers, and I’m sure that my craft-beer exploration started with Saison beers from France. This is really nice, and reminds me why I like the style so much. So simple so elegant, extremely tasty and they offer a lot of nuance and layers, even tf they seem simple agricultural beers.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 of its things from the thing. This is all the things you look for in a beer, it’s looks great, it has authentic aroma, and the taste is simply a delight.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? The local Liquorland of course. But these are in good places where you get good beers.
- Am I enjoying it? I really am, I should have drunk this earlier.
- Would I have another? Yes I would.
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Clearly this is a top notch beer that would welcome an audience.
Music for this: When You See Yourself by Kings of Leon on the Spotify – so new there’s no video yet.
