“Bridge Road Brewers have teamed up with some of Australia’s best Chardonnay producers to create unique beers fermented on wild wine yeast. The Biere de Wilde has been fermented in two separate 500 litre French Cognac barrels, each was separately inoculated with wild yeast from A.Rodda and Sorrenberg Vineyard. The combination of wild yeasts sourced from each active Chardonnay ferment and 12 months ageing in Cognac barrels have created two unique beers with fantastic texture and complexity.”
Served in a tulip glass. She pours quite an attractive rich mahogany hue with a short khaki head that dissipates almost immediately. No lacing is drawn out of the thin ring that remains of the head. The aroma is a lot more sour than most Biere de Gardes we’ve tried. This particular beer was fermented with a wild wine yeast strain from Sorrenberg Vineyard (just 10 mins from the brewery) in Beechworth, Victoria. It’s quite fruity with an evident oak mustiness from the aging in French cognac barrels. We love the complexity, earthy accents of licorice cut through the tart berries as sharp citrus gets nicely muddled up in the vinegary/red wine-like tannin. Intricate and interesting aroma. We like it. The mouth feel is nice and light with that saliva inducing sourness clocking in but not overpowering. Co2 is moderate and the body is moderate-medium. The acidity isn’t too overbearing either, easing off on to the back end. Upfront the taste is all about sour, tart and vinegar with that dry, funky barnyard flavour that’s more prevalent in Saisons. A subtle suggestion of cognac does come through the middle as the oak tannins begin to push through. A slight alcohol warmth (7.6%) pricks up as it leads in to a dry, funky and woody finish with lengthy duration on the rear palate. We can say that it definitely hits its mark. The wild component does give the typical BDG flavours a shake up and in effect brings an extra element to an already interesting style of brewing. Kudos Bridge Road this is a solid drop.