Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Unblended
Brussels, Belgium

Fruity nose, with vinegar, sourness and a dusty cheesyness. Clear golden body, with tiny bubbles, comepletely flat. Wonderful flavor, very tart and sour, yet very fruity and fresh, lots of lemon and grapefruit.

Bottled. Thanks to Dixen. This is a great Lambic. Very clean and pure. A lot of fruity tones everywhere in this. It is, in my opinion, on of the most sour lambics. A great beer.

Small fizzy top , gold with minimal carbonation . Mellow lambic . Grassy, village like aroma, grapes and cherry. Rather light, soft, sour character. Gentle for its style.

No activity in my glass whatsoever, no bubbling, no head, no beading, no FILM for god’s sake. Vinegar again, mildly, and must (yeast). Alcohol fumes, again mild. Very unremarkable upon every level.

(Bottled, 2003 vintage) Slightly hazy golden with almost no head. Tart, but sweetish aroma of apricot and grainy wheat. Tart, very fruity flavor with apricot and white grapes. Light to medium-bodied, very flat and pretty dry palate. A very smooth, easily drinkable and enjoyable lambic (yes, I can see the difference between this and the earlier rating :). (Bottled, 0.75l, 2001 vintage) Slightly hazy apple juice color with almost no head. Tart, sour, wheaty aroma. Quite sour, somewhat acidic flavor with apples and wheaty malt. Medium-bodied, dry and sour, quite astringent palate with very low carbonation. A nice and tasty lambic, but long bottle conditioning makes it less drinkable (much more sour) than the fresh unblended ones.

Original rating: Cloudy golden yellow, very hazy, no head. Sweet honey nose with strong brett profile. Kiwi, lemon, grapefruit and mostly pineapple make for a dynamic fruit salad. Horsey funk, salt, ink, lactic and big rubber tones make up for funk lovers. I couldn’t dig the flavor so much, plastic and rubber are a bit too dominant. I’m not one to complain about crap, leather and the likes, but I find no interest in plastic... Astringent and citric grapefruit/pineapple juice. Still body, juicy and funky. I expected more from my first unblended lambic experience..
Had a 2001 yesterday and once again, I’m a bit unimpressed. First, it’s not very pungent at all this time with nowhere near the acidity level I’m expecting in a Cantillon, this was a bit tart, moderately so at best and globally lifeless, not only in terms of carbonation absence, but also in its idiosyncratic constitution. It is very juicy, not as complex as I read and globally not so aromatic at all plus it doesn’t play much on subtlety. Perhaps it is a very variable beer, which could excuse part of it since it felt different and even less enjoyable than the first time during which I awarded it a 3.5. Lowering to 3.2

Bottle at Higgins in Portland, OR. Aroma is highly unusual. It almost smells like a baby diaper. Some tartness and fruit comes through, but the poo smell is there. Cloudy medium gold, no carbonation (which makes sense because it’s unblended lambic). Flavor is very mellow, but that aroma just makes it very difficult to drink.

Flat golden colour. Nice barnyard funk in the nose. Refreshing white wine flavour in the start, long and acidic balanced finish. Tasty fruit notes.