Review: Dieu du CIel Péché Mortel Bourbon (2021)

This is a review that has been in the works for almost five years now. A number of years ago I did a special beer order through my local Liquor Mart, I requested 24 bottles of Dieu du Ciel's Péché Mortel Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, which is considered to be one of the best stouts to ever exist. Well, I show up at the Liquor Mart and the staff tell me the beer arrived.. it was definitely Péché Mortel but not the Bourbon variant I paid for. Thankfully I wasn't on the hook for the beer as it wasn't what I requested, so they put it on the shelves for general sales until it sold out. A year later I tried again and this time - I got my beer, Péché Mortel Bourbon, bottled in 2021.. and this was probably mid 2023 by the time I received it. I still have something like eight to ten bottles (out of twenty four), so knowing that it's not going to go stale anytime in the next few years, I've been holding on to it for a good amount of time.

From the bottle: Coffee infused. Aromas of coffee, vanilla, and oak underlined by archetypal Bourbon flavours. 9.5% ABV

Appearance: Pitch black stout, as expected. The head is very faint at first but once the beer has poured it fizzes a tad, giving off a light-to-moderate amount of light brown cookie dough colour kindo f head to it. Slight amount of lacing but just minimally.

Aroma: The infusion of coffee is very apparent in this beer - it's rich, roasty, a tad burnt. As well, you really get the Bourbon out of this beer, giving off notes of oak, vanilla, and a Whisky-like sweetness and booziness at the end. A tad earthy, and quite aromatic. This is a very hefty stout.

Taste: You can immediately tell that this is an 8.5% Imperial Stout as the alcohol tingles my mouth near instantly. The stout has a bit of a silky mouthfeel for me, while it has a heavy coffee bitterness to it, a sweetness of caramel and chocolate, as well as an abundance of Bourbon which gives off notes of oak, vanilla, a Whisky booziness, and finally a hint of peat at the end. It's a tad desserty with the coffee lingering with the Bourbon to give off a bit of a cockatail vibe to it.

Overall Thoughts: I've only had a few sips and I can feel it creeping up on me. This was well worth the wait. Péché Day was just the other day but due to my job, unfortunately I missed the event in Winnipeg.. maybe I'll be able to go to one one day if it doesn't happen to fall around the busiest time of the year for my job. Sweet, boozy, coffee-licious, this stout is all over the place.