Anchorage's annual Culmination Festival is a gathering of the barrel-aged elite (Hill Farmstead, Lost Abbey, Allagash). This year, there was one complex, vinous sour that captured all their distinguished palates’ imagination: 8 Wired Brewing Co.’s Le Fût Flanders Red Ale.

A labor of barrel-aged love 2 years in the making, Le Fût blends Flanders style’s deep tartness with the oaky influence of 15 Pinot Noir wine barrels. 8 Wired rested this Sour in a time-consuming but rewarding two-step process:

• Securing the Flanders Red in the first 12 barrels in 2013, the splashing, red fruit character of Pinot Noir infuses the beer with juicy, vinous depths. Waves of vanilla from the French Oak lend the brew a full, red wine-like body.

• To further drive up complexity and tart character, 8 Wired put a portion of the beer in 3 separate barrels. Touches of dusty farmhouse funk, cracked pepper, and a kiss of raspberry pucker enliven the experience to balance out the rich base.

Blending these 15 separate brews into harmony, Le Fût flows with wine-like complexity: Black cherries, birchwood, cola spice, warm vanilla, and a elegant sour that stimulates the palate from the beginning to the end.

One of the foremost barrel-aging experts in the Southern Hemisphere, 8 Wired is perhaps New Zealand’s most celebrated beer makers, achieving the nation’s highest brewing honor - the title of Champion Brewery. Their Le Fût is a delicious case in point of this esteemed expertise.

Rated 98 on RateBeer, 4.03 on Untappd