Lagerboy Speaks – Peroni Gran Riserva
Writing about beer – or any other subject – can lead to interesting discoveries, or give you strange moments of realisation. For me, despite the numerous posts of Lagerboy (and many trips to Italian restaurants), I never actually realised that Peroni and Nastro Azzurro were different beers. Admittedly they come in almost identical bottles, but originally the former was the flagship of the Peroni Brewery, and the latter their premium brand launched in 1963. Also in my defence there’s only 0.4%abv difference between the two (Peroni weighs in at 4.7% and Nastro at 5.1%). I guess when drunk at Pizza Express they look and taste pretty similar.
Anyway, Lagerboy has been educated in the differing brands of Birra Peroni because of a meatier stablemate – Peroni Gran Riserva (6.6%). Despite the pretence of exclusivity, thanks to the muscle of SABMiller (who purchased Birra Peroni in 2005) the Gran Riserva can be found in most UK supermarkets. As it happened, Lagerboy was idly pushing a trolley around one such establishment when the dark red and gold bottle happened to catch his beady eye. It’s the strongest beer produced by the Rome-based firm, the rest being paler lagers either side of the magic 5% mark.
Peroni Gran Riserva pours a darkish gold or light amber colour, and has a nose of slight alcohol and dark stone fruits with plenty of malt. It tastes a bit like a bock (on RateBeer it is actually categorised as a Helles), with strong, sweet alcohol tastes, more malt and only a touch of hops. The aftertaste is plums and more sweetness. It all tails off a bit though, and leads off from a promising start into a muddling finish. It’s eminently drinkable, and probably better than either of their two more renowned brands, but there are better punchy lagers out there.