3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Vintage (all from 2002-*)

Brewed by 3 Fonteinen
Style: Lambic - Gueuze
Beersel, Belgium

Pours unclear golden with medium white head. Nice sour aroma with grapes, wood and leather. Complex acidic flavor with grapy notes. Very smooth and perfect balance. Finishes of dry. Excellent geuze.

25 oz bottle, 2002 Vintage, via anders37, tasted side-by-side with a regular 3 F Oude Gueuze, Vintage 2004. Absolutely perfect pour, slightly hazy gold under a nice fizzy foamy slightly off-white head that left some nice fine lacing. The nose is just great as well, funky dry cellar mustiness with some granny smith apples, lemons, a little pixie stick dry sugariness and barnyard bretty funk. Really no yogurty or cheesy funkiness that dominated the younger 2004 regular version. Just a really mellow well aged gueuze that really hits the sweet spot of what I want. The flavor is tart and a little acidic with a ton of dry cellar dust and must. Lemon tartness and funky brett interplay perfectly. A lingering oak and earthiness fades slowly on the finish. Mouthfeel is completely attenuated leaving a crisp fairly light bodied feel with perfect lively spritzy carbonation. This was truely great, and by far outshined the younger version in terms of drinkability. Though the younger was beautiful in its own right. I only wonder whether it was the lambics that went into the different bottles or simply the age of the bottles that made the huge difference. I can’t wait to see how the J&J’s stand up to this.

Bottle Delirium Cafe (2003): Pours a clear light copper color with a white head. Aroma is hint of sweet malt and lots of tart fruit. Flavor is a dry tart fruit with a long sour dry citrus finish.

April 12, 2002 Vintage. Poured from a 750ml Thanks to Jason. Aroma wicks forth with a flicking tongue of spring essence in a cherry orchard. Blossoms all around. Cottony wafts, sugars flaunt and a wheat essence plays with persimmon seeds and Passionfruit juice in a soft balance. Fleeting ginger. Pours that clear even gold, headed with mountains of residing billowy foam, lubricious in its delivery. Bubbly and alive. Flavor arrives in resplendent glory, with gentle tannins, refined sweetness and lots of elegant cotton. Pear juice and lemon oils. Tart, puckering and full of the necessary farm yard. This was tasted side by side with the standard Oude Geuze and this was hands down the winner. This maintains complex acidity and brightness, yet holds such refined softness and gentle, pleasing flavors. The young has cheese, wildness, wood and acid, this restrains those a little bit and yields soft spice, grassy fields and sunlight. Awesome stuff.

Rating #800. 2004 vintage. Murky orange pour heaped with lasting white froth. Fleshy, sherbety orange aroma with a hint of mouldy tangerine. Bitter orange and lemon fruitiness finishing with a dash of G+T dryness. Cleaner, spritzier and less complex than the younger versions I’ve tried, with little dankness or wood. A delicious tingling beer dripping with tangy, citrussy fruit.

Dark orange. Fine white disappearing head. Classic Oude Geuze aroma with some sourness popping up and notes of lemon. In the mouth the sourness is medium lasting. Some woody flavors. A bit earthlike as well.

Name: Oude Geuze Vintage
Date: 01/31/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Vintage: 2002

opaque orange, fine white head, drippy lace, musty aroma with a light lemony tartness, creamy body, tart lemon flavor, the tartness starts small and grows throughout the swallow, a nice amount of funk provides some complexity,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: **+/4

0.375 l bottle, vintage 2004. Copper to amber color with creamy head. Sour, earthy-leathery and parfumy aroma with notes of strawberry, pineapple and rose. Very sour, tart, woody and mouth drying flavor with pineapple and bitterness from the wild yeast. Very hard at first, but after a while palate got used to it.