Pizza Port Cuvee de Tomme

absolutely fantastic! cherry and strawberry with great swings between sweet and sour. the unexpected highlight of the evening.

Same beer as the Aug. 25th 2007 Barrel Tasting event except this time it has been in a bottle for a while. Pours hazy brown copper with thin tan head. It has a big fruity complex aroma with a layer of tartness, cherries, cherries and more cherries. I also get barrel wood notes and it is smelling rich and inviting. As big a flavor as the nose led onto, wow. Lots of cherries that quickly become tart and leaning up against a wood barrel (yes, a cherry leaning on a barrel, that’s what it tastes like. How can my taste buds be wrong?). This is bold in flavor with the tartness building and building into the finish. Nice refreshing brew bringing up sweet fruity cherries turning tart and then there’s an undercurrent of a wood note that sneaks in every so often. Ends with lingering cherry fruitiness and tartness. It seems much more tart than when I tasted straight from the barrel last year at the Barrel Tasting event.

Tasted at Lost Abbey’s 1st Annual Barrel Tasting (Aug. 25, 2007) pours like a port wine or coffee with a reddish tint. The aroma is big consisting of oak, green grapes, raisins, dates, a little bit of hay and new freshly wetted burlap. The flavor stacked up much the same way as the aroma. The fruitiness is rich, somewhat sweet and inviting with green grapes, plums, dates, raisins and hints of fresh boysenberries. Well, sort of boysenberry-ish. The fruit notes were melded nicely together making them tough to discern yet they were also punchy in their evenness. To round out the flavor mellow notes of oak and vanilla mix effortlessly with the fruit.

2003 vintage. The resounding glow from a dark cherry red pour is gorgeous, one of the prettiest expressions of my favorite color scheme in a beer I have encountered. The body has transparent liquid spots intertwined with twirling haze, glittering carbonation streaming upward. The mid-sized light beige head with dark tan swirls recedes slowly and imparts bold circular lacing that slowly drips downward. Brettanomyces roars from the glass as it’s lifted for the first nosing. Fresh cherries, multi-varietal and both tart and decadently sweet, follow and release crafty hints of sugar-coated chocolates and raw oak. Belgian yeast is glorious and even-tempered, forcible while exuding elegance only an unadulterated strain from that country produces. Caramelized brown sugar and figs are next, sharp tangents shooting from each glimpse into this incredibly complex offering. Traces of rock sugar comliment the oak and sour/tartness and bring up the rear. This is a vinous and reluctantly authentic aroma, pleasing and challenging. The flavor is extremely vinous and sharp, with yeast in the corners and sour brawling with sweet in the middle of the ring. Rum raisin cake is introduced early. Sour levels are high, tartness puckering and bulbous, sweetness medium and spices from yeast and barrel alike are boorish and popping. Astringency is high and though it has mellowed(18 month old sample) it’s still a kick in the teeth. Woodiness now takes on an earthy character, completed with a musty outlook and a focused inward tannic swirl that grabs hold and migrates into dark recesses in the corners of the mouth. Alcohol is marvelously masked until a pounding and unforgiving finish takes its first step towards the inevitable ingraining effect it will hold in memory for years to come. Warmth grows as sharp vinous notes glide freely down the throat and back up again, this time with sharper astringency, moderately drying out the entirety of the affected area. Sour cherry pits and sugar lingers. The mouthfeel is light-medium, with silky carbonation and spongy fruit syrup in tightly wound pockets that bounce around inside the mouth. The ultra-extraordinary vinous character and similarities to a very old Super-Tuscan red wine are what make a carefully cellared sample of this beer most unforgettable. Delicious, though young samples have proven less enticing. One to buy and forget about for awhile.

#500. Enjoyed @ Rudolf’s Sour Tasting with Rudolf, IPFreely, Jerc & frylock. Special thanks out to Rudolf & Angela for their great hospitality. Wow is this complex. 375ml. Port like character, brett funkiness, oak, caramel sweetness, sour cherry. The complexity is amazing. very impressive

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: August 24, 2005
Score: ii
Words: russian river contract
great rich malt, good cherry tartness with only a hint of sweetness, nice balance, a bit of bret upon warming, interesting

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: December 03, 2005
Source: strong ale fest
Score: ii to iii
Appearance: clear ruby red
Flavor: wonderful cherry tartness in the aroma and flavor, great cherry pit bitterness

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: June 18, 2005
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Noog I
Vintage: 2003
Appearance: solid brown
Aroma: funky horsy aroma with a bit of swetness
Flavor: thin soy sauce flavor

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: June 18, 2005
Vintage: 2004
Appearance: rusty brown
Aroma: sweet rich malt aroma, hint of horse
Flavor: tart malt flavor
Overall: what’s the big deal?

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: June 18, 2005
Vintage: 2004
Words: gold foil
Appearance: ruby red
Aroma: tart horsy aroma
Flavor: sweet tart fruity flavor, the tart fruit saves the day, best of the litter, ii

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: July 14, 2007
Mode: bottle
Source: tasting
Vintage: 2005
Aroma: huge tart cherry and oak aroma
Flavor: cherry flavor is taking on a candy sweetness

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: ***+/4

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: June 09, 2007
Mode: bottle
Source: Noog 3D
Vintage: 2007
Score: 3.6 to 4.0
Aroma: huge tart cherry pit aroma backed by rich chocolate
Flavor: very rich sweet cherry flavor with plenty of tartness, rich chocolate

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: July 03, 2008
Mode: Bottle
Source: Ale Atlanta
Vintage: 2008
Appearance: hazy dark amber, wispy beige head
Aroma: big tart cherry pit aroma
Flavor: big sweet dark caramel malt flavor, lots of cherry tartness, touch of chocolate, balancing earthyness

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: July 04, 2008
Mode: bottle
Vintage: 2008
Appearance: opaque dark burgendy red, scant beige head
Aroma: dry dark caramel malt aroma, lots of oak, woody cherry pit tartness, light mustyness
Flavor: dark caramel and cherry flavor, lots of fruity tartness, light sweetness kept in check by the tartness, wood character adds balance and complexity, touch of chocolate

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***+/4

Name: Cuvee de Tomme
Date: August 01, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Brewery
Vintage: 2009
Appearance: clear dark brown, fint tan head, drippy streaks of lace
Aroma: tart lactic cherry and oak aroma, light chocolate
Flavor: strong cherry and oak flavor, tartness is nicely tempered by the oak, long tart finish

Aroma: /10; Appearance: /10; Flavor: /10; Palate: /10; Overall: /20
Rating: 0/5.0
Drinkability: /10

This beer causes quite the conversation. How to review a beer in which evoked such a different experience between 3 different samplings? May ’07 release in bottle had developed into the funky sour one of the three. Recently sampled two more versions at the LA barrel tasting - one from french oak; the other in bourbon. Wow. A whole different monster than the bottle, period - the heavy bret influence shown in bottle was replaced by a rich pear/green apple like aroma with such an elegant mouthfeel - simply divine. Such a complex, mind boggling brew. Always quite exciting knowing that every time one gets a shot at tasting this, a new experience will be sure to follow. Rating is for the non-bottle versions. Bravo!

375ml, lost abbey release batch 1. pours flat dark ruby-brown. nose of sour cherries, bourbon, oak, vanilla, tar. flavor is really sour cherries with brett, tobacco, alcohol warmth, and sweet caramel finish. the finish is sweet and bretty. some carbonation could do this beer wonders. a tasty complex tobacco and sour cherry flavor profile.3.9.

7/10/08, 375 ml bottle. 2008 vintage. Lost Abbey release batch 2. thanks to ironchefscott for this one. pours dark red with off white head. nose is tart cherrys, tar, bourbon, vanilla, doughy, cinnamon, sour. wonderful complex aroma. flavor is tart cherries, oak, vanilla, toffee, cheesey, charred woody finish. dry sourness too in the finish. wow this is awesome stuff.4.2.

375ml bottle.....to celebrate the birthday....aroma: lots going on in the nose. i get a fair share of sweet malt and dark fruit but the majority of it is woody with a nice precense of tart cherry.....appearance: dark caramel brown, thin head at first but gradually dissipates....taste: where to even start? tart cherry right of the bat. then hints of vanilla and caramel begin to weave in and not to mention some oak to add to the tartness. it maintained a consistent tart/sour feel to it but never became overbearing. at 11.5%, you would never notice it. very interesting indeed and enjoyed to the largest extent. wish i had more, that’s for sure.