Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Unblended
Brussels, Belgium

375ml bottle (Apteeki, Turku)
Sharp and sweet aroma, a little fruity - citrus, grapefruity, woody, musky. Puckeringly sharp. Citrus and grapefruity taste, hebs, woody, oaky.
previous rating: 7-3-7-3-15=3.5
375ml bottle (St. Urho’s, Helsinki) 2005 vintage (sip - thanks mirjukka!)
Flat orange or light brown. The usual Cantillon fingerprint is easily detected on your nose, but this one is mellower. You’re definitely facing a sour lambic, but this is very woody indeed, very soft and mellow. It’s soft in the mouth despite the sharpness. Apricot is the most prominent taste, but there’s the classic Cantillon lambic body backing that up, and it leaves an oaky woody and walnut-paper nutty finish. Classic Cantillon, but this is a little thin and watery as it’s too young. Must rerate in a couple of years.
Earlier Rating: 7/4/2007 Total Score: 3.9
Bottle (Apteekki, Turku) 2003 vintage. Slightly cloudy dark yellow, completely flat. Wondrous lightly sour and refreshingly sweet aroma. Buttered hot cross buns. Taste is refreshingly sharp sour bitterness which leaves a wonderfully mellow malt taste, a little bit like buttered hot cross buns too. Don’t let the barstaff take your empty glass away, as even that smells beautiful!

Appearance: no head , colour like filtered apple juice Flavor: sour not so matured

(September ’07 vintage - Organic) Nice tart aroma, with touches of green apple, and a touch of funk behind it. Pours a slightly hazy straw aroma, just a couple of bubbles with a heavy pour. Very tart and dry flavor, touches of earth and oak dance around in it. Fairly smooth mouthfeel, overall not bad at all. I prefer the gueuze style to this, but I may pick up a bottle or two to cellar, to showcase to some wine geeks sometime.

75cL bottle dated 2003 at Pittsburgh gathering in 1/27/08. Pours dead flat, no foam, no lacing. This vintage is known for being flat, so take that for what it is. Huge earthy, oaky sour aroma, smells like everything a lambic should smell like. Flavor is bone dry, big lemon zest sourness, lots of oak, repeat LOTS of oak. Mouthfeel is surprisingly velvety considering the complete lack of carbonation. Was last my last bottle of that vintage, now I’m sad I don’t have more.

Black foil capped 750 ml. green bottle, my front label has the Pieter Brueghel painting called the "The Wedding Feast," serving recommendations on the back label, sampled at the temperature suggested in a wine glass. My cork has "Bottled in 2005" on it, so this is around three years old, purchased today at my favorite local wine shop. L: Clear reddish orange pale golden with a short fizzy head that quickly settled into a thin bubbly lacing. Swirling leaves a slick film along the sides of the glass, this looks exactly like how I expect a quality lambic to look, wine-like. S: Tart, acidic apple cider and honey, traces of oak and musty barnyard yeast, this is the nose of a well crafted lambic. F&T: Dry light body, mild acidity, has firm rounded feel in the palate, this is close to a non-carbonated cider in its mouth feel. Tastes of softly tart, but lip puckering, apple cider cut with a dash of refined honey, traces of woody oak and must. Towards the end a little sour green grape comes out. Astringent and aridly dry in finish, lingering tastes of sour green apples and grapes sprinkled with a pinch of white sugar. This went great with the baked whitefish, fingerling potatoes and green beans I had for dinner tonight. Another well made lambic from Cantillion, one of my favorites.

Pours a hazed gold with a funky nose (surprise, surprise). Flavor is a load of tangy oranges. The liquid feel is thicker than I usually expect lambics to be. It’s good. Not my favorite lambic really, but still pretty decent. Just a bit too tangy for my likes is all.

Poured a golden/copper color with no head, really no carbination at all. The nose was signature Cantillon yeastiness but not very pronounced. Flavors were dominated by a flat citric vinigar taste with some phenolic notes and mild hay. I’ve noticed some really promising ratings for this but on the other hand, I’ve also seen a lot of carbination problems. I’d like to try this again one day but not necessarily too soon. My most disappointing Cantillon to date.

Had the pleasure of sampling this at the 1/27/2008 Pittsburgh ratebeer.com gathering RBPG and festival upstairs, Sharp Edge Creekhouse. It will be a long time, if ever I am invited again and I see a spread of bottles like I did there - ever again. I am not good enough for the beers that were that we sampled! For example, how about this beer; Cantillon broucelle 1900 (2003) from the owner himself, Hart, thanks mtoast. Quite an experience. Sweetish farmyard aromas that are slightly tart in nature. Surprisingly very clear for a cantillon, in my experience. Completely flat yet has an interesting feel to it. On the tongue it is tart and only mildly sour. Wet woolly blankets. Rags that have sat in the corner for a while. Interesting lambic session with no carbonation. Some light amount of bitter on the finish, but certainly not over the top. mtoast, I owe you one!