Cantillon Vigneronne

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

(750ml bottle) Pours a bubbly golden orange body with a small white head. Gueuze-like aroma and flavor. Aroma of tart white grapes, lemon and grapefruit. Somewhat lively at first then later a softer than normal mouthfeel (when compaired to other Cantillons). Flavor is tart and well balanced.

Well it’s hard for me to be knowledgeable about any beer since I am a neophyte, so I feell like I don’t quite know what hit me with this one even more than usual. Seems unique even by Cantillon’s lofty standards. Almost caramel-brown orangey colour, hazy with essentially no head. Felt like I was drinking champagne gone wrong....but it was so very right. Super sour grape flavours and aromas and lots of acidity to cleanse the mouth - and stomach lining. However after the initial burst of sour it smoothed out nicely. Grapes added sweetness too though and it had a beautifully balanced lingering finish.

750 ml bottle. No head, very cloudy, dark yellow colour and slightly spritzy. Funky acidic aroma, horseblanket, musty, dusty and a hint of grape sweetness. Flavour is very tart and sour, slightly salty, musty with a bit of grape flavour. Wheaty finish. Quite similar to their gueuze. Body is very full and sticky.

2000 Vintage - Pour was rigorous but left little head. Sour barnyard funkiness all over the place in the aroma. Taste was classic Cantillon, extreme sour but it is defined by the slightest hint of grapeskin, adding to some of the bitterness. Quite good.

Sampled in a beer tasting at Plan B, Copenhagen. These beers are just too acidic for me. Moreover, the aroma was unpleasant (barnyard, sulfur?).

Yellow, somewhat hazy, almost no head. Aroma is truly sour and with some grass. Flavor from sour goosberries, citrus. Some what dry in the finish. This was almost like sour wine.

Bottle 1997 Vintage: The man I bought this from told me that the bottle couldn’t have been there for more than three months or so. HA! more like 5 years. So I had my doubts about it after I checked the cork. As I pour a giant fociferous head appears...and then slowly creeps off into the ’corners’ of my glass. HAzy and polluted, the yeast in this bottle has long since died off and broken up, smearing itself all over this beauty of a beer. The nose is intensely baconlike. Honestly this brew smells like the best gueuze ever blended, ever thought up ever! Take Girardin black and add bacon fat and my friends you have what I amdrinking. This is the most complex and overpowering brew I’ve ever let flow down my gullet. Nose is azy and bricklike. Around the edges a faint dry oak emerges. If I had as many technical terms as Joris Pattyn I’d have to use them all. Citrus, chalk and lactic acid collide creating heaven. The palate on this is massive. Still effervescent even after all these years. This coats like salty molasses, filling every crevace of my mouth. The bacon in the nose really shines on the palate, filling out the citrus with a punch that makes Cantillon one of...if not...my favorite brewery. Friends this is masterful. Jean Pierre Van Roy is a mad genius. I love him. G-rat

2001 Vintage. Light golden orange in colour. Aroma was citrusy, lots of grapes, leather and a wonderful sourness. The flavour was outstanding. Very funky and sour at the start, very tart, starts of very gueuze like and then the slight sweetness of the grapes kick in. An amazing mouthfeel and a beautiful tartness. Medium bodied. Finishes was a huge sourness and very long. Simply amazing.