Sonnen Hill Lightly (2023)

What the brewers say

"Lightly is a wine beer made by blending oak-aged saison with oak-fermented Chardonnay. The base saisons were made with Ontario grain and aged in both American and French oak, and the Niagara Chardonnay was aged in a French oak barrel."

What our panel thought

"Pours like a white wine color-wise and no head to write of. An aroma of peach, grapefruit, and vanilla along with a hint of black pepper. A brioche-like sweetness is contrasted with citrus-pith bitterness and medicinal blackberry character. High carbonation helps balance the residual sugars but it still comes out on the sweeter side of the spectrum."

What our editors thought

"Looks quite simply like a softy sparkled glass of white wine, brilliantly clear pale gold with no foam. In the nose, some pleasant and sweeter-leaning vinous notes are there with some evident oak and minerality, but also some detracting staling notes. Off-dry wine in the flavor, sweetish, light carbonation, with some slight tannic structure and a few grainy reminders that there was malt involved. A take: If you want a very wine-like beer to taste pretty much like wine, then it had better taste like a good one."