 fredandboboflo (260), East Setauket, New York, USA
May 8, 2008
Bottle, 2005. Aroma mostly the typical Cantillon funk and sourness with a hint of grapey sweetness balancing things out, but remaining in the background. Flavor starts off much the same way, but by the time the swallow comes about, there are tiny, tiny, tiny, green, green, green, sour, sour, sour grapes darting about the mouth. These buggers remain on the lips as uber-tart reminders of what just happened for a good while. Such a unique (and luscious) experience, even amongst other Cantillons of the same style.
mybestfriend (223), Gothenburg, Sweden
Jul 2, 2008 2006 75 cl Bottle. Pours a pale yellow colour with a white, fast-disappearing head. Aroma is funky barnyard, horse and an almost nonexistent note of grapes. The flavour is dry and sour with notes of funky barnyard, horse and pure lemon juice. (where are the grapes?). Saint Lamvinus was better.
azlondon (455), Greater London, England
Jul 1, 2008 Appearance: Cap&Cork. Cloudy light orange. Just a little bit of head.
Aroma: Sour, lemony. Some fruit.
Taste: Quite sour, lemony. Awful aftertaste.
Info: 750ml bottle, 21/8-2007, 181/500
Beershine (1059), Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Jun 25, 2008 Draught @ Ebenezer Kezar’s. Hazy peach color, headless but with visible bubbles in the body. Fruity nose with lots of crisp autumn apples, white wine, and loads of sour grape candy. Clean, mild, barely carbonated with a flat, thin finish. This is the way fermented grapes should taste.
Stine (1268), St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Jun 24, 2008 Vintage 2002. Springy apricot orange hue. Dank basement cheese and sweaty sock aroma. Hard water. Ancient balsamic vinegar. Brown sugar, white grapes, pears providing a rounding sweetness that puckers tart. A surprising habanero-like grassy heat singes in the back, brought back with complementing touch of flowery tea that has some of the same, green earthiness, pleasingly cooled.
A blistering white grape tart flavor. Familiar and compelling lemon juice acidity; fruit always forward and funk reserved, though the leathery, somewhat quiet tannins seem to aptly fill the gap. Strikingly sophisticated touch. Cheese and mineral dryness in the middle, with an evasive, dusty sweetness scampering about; suggests white chocolate powdered with spice, strangely, and the vibrancy of wheat. The sourness of the grapes seems to have only grown more pungent and sharp after six years, but the layers of flavor beneath have a settled complexity about them that’s really rich and intriguing. A meaty blend of spices gathers force and really underscores that depth as the beer warms; dusty and dry, woodsy and rich; paprika, ginger and cayenne. Pleasingly startling, and the funk intensifies freakishly.
Palate is firm and spritzy; a concentrated, tangy acidity. Finish takes a while to dry out, first showing a bursting pineapple tartness, then a grainy white cheesiness, and finally a hard water and yeast minerality that’s pretty viciously rough and abrasive. But that furious dryness is what I love about a lambic finish. Begins as a juicy, delicate and fruity foray into the softer tones of wild yeasts, but ends with a pretty devastating whirlwind of funkiness.
PhillyBeer2112 (1800), Orange Park, Florida, USA
Jun 22, 2008 2002 bottle tasted 2008. Nice beer. Aroma previews the sourness with a distinct lemony grassiness, plus a very pleasing jasmine flower aroma. Really nice. Flavor begins with a hard acidity, but once you adapt it smooths out to a nice tartness plus a sweet white wine vinousness. Perhaps just a trace of leathery funk in the background, along with a floral note in the finish. Hazy golden, virtually no head, light carbonation.
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