Boon Kriek Mariage Parfait

Brewed by Brouwerij F. Boon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Lembeek, Belgium

I hope I’ve got this one right. 2004 vintage served up at Afspanning ’t Waagstuk in late 2006 at a cost of e5.20. Thin head, very clear ruby red on colour. A touch of bottle stink early but this soon blows off the leave cherry fruits dominating. Lots of tart and sour notes early to taste but settles to let some cherry and fruit peak through. Tart fruits underpin the palate in a rather unique fashion totally coating the underside of the tongue. Finishes a touch short but not deal breaker. As per other decent gueze and lambics its tough to see the bottle age such is the robust structure. Only blemish was a dirty sulphuric character that wouldn’t subside.

A Mes rate: Bottled from De Heeren van Liedekerke. Great stuff. Maybe just a little bit of a let down considering how well respected it is but hey. Not as sour as I was expecting, plenty of funky barnish character and not as overly cherry as I thought it would be given their commercial kriek. Just a little too straight forward for me to class it as really great.

Bottle, Heeren van Liedekerke, Denderleeuw. 2003 vintage. Clear effervescent deep ruby with a bright pink, fizzy-foamy head diminishing to a persistent 1" layer on the top. Lacing is a uniform layer that slides and doesn’t stick, but stays together in a sheet of bubbles that stack together and just wait until you equalize a tilted glass to make their way down. Smell is almost over-ripe cherries in almost equal proportion to yeasty brett. Cherries don’t make their appearance in the flavor until right after the swallow; before that, the sourness is almost exactly like an intense Italian ice (more citric than Cantillon). Delicious, but not as complex as it could be. Finish is a lingering acid and brett, with the acid breaking in waves and then resting in intermitent brettty driness. Occassionally, an earthy prick hits the back of the tongue and adds a nice counterpoint to hte sour. This beer is all about raw flavors: sour and sweet and bitter and dry, without linking any of them to an identifiable source.

375ml bottle, vintage 2003
Consumed at Hop Duvel, Gent, May 2006 ( 3 years cellared)
Murky dark purple with a light pink head. Fresh and tangy cherries, very tart and tangy overall. Lightly sweet up front, quenching for sure, with a semi-sweet red grape flavor. Some things I was not so hot about was the lack of a seedy cherry flavor, and the nose is comparatively light for the style. Otherwise, still a very good kriek.

Photograph of Bottle & Glass:
http://www.youforgotpoland.org/beer/BoonKriekMP.

Bottle...didn’t see the date, just got a short pour from it. Told it was from mid 90’s. Color is a cloudy reddish I suppose. Sour woody nose, fruity...you can sense a load of tartness lurking. Nice cherry twang, more tartness, and a big musty bang in the flavor. More carbonated than the pour had me believing. Seems thin...sour flavor gets more intense. Tart fruitiness lingers to the end.

RBESG 2005. Vintage 1980 Bottle. Orange brown colour with no head and carbonation. Acid earthy cherry aroma and extreme sour also sour flavour of wood. More speciel than good.

Bottle. Murky cherry red in colour with a very small dissipating pink head. The aroma was oaky, woody, some sourness, slightly tart, acidic with some cherries. The flavour started of with a beautiful cherry tartness and was nice and acidic but it sort of fell apart from there. All of the cherries, sourness and acidity all left and nothing remained. Puckering mouthfeel, medium body, medium/high carbonation. Finishes with a small sourness but this is clearly not the beer that it used to be.

RBESG 2005, 1980 vintage. Murky brown colour with a very small head. Woody nose with a fruity sourness. Sour, dry flavor with a clear yeasty note.