Cantillon Framboise

Formerly brewed at Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Kulminator Antwerp: LCRBM "afterparty". I was allowed to taste this magnificent 1979 beer. Lively raspberry and lemon aroma and flavor. Still very sour, hasn’t eased down a bit, I’d guess. A great beer!

Bottle. Vintage ’79, Pours a redish golden with a small head. Not much color left. Aroma is sweet raspberries and funky brett. Taste is raspberries, funk, tart. What a wonder that this beer has kept the taste.

750ml bottle, vintage 1979
Consumed at Kulminator, Antwerp, May 2006 (27 years cellared)
Crystal clear orange amber colored body with a small filmy white or tan head that does not stay around for long. The bottle is quite old, obvisouly, and is green with a white paint mark on the face, and red tape near the cork. The cork looks like it’s been to hell and back, at least on the exposed side. Surprisingly rich nose of seedy raspberries and with a light pear note. Up front it’s mild, slightly sweet, fruity raspberries present, smooth and creamy actually, with a solid fruit tartness that you might find in a lucky raspberry or two... a natural tartness, at least, is what it appears. Dries in a strange (good) way as it goes over the tongue. By the finish, this beer has done a number... incredibly devine, with a dry, ashy finish... it’s a bottle of gueze as old as I am, and it cost me €25, but it was more than worth it. I want another.

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

Thanks to “mjames” for letting me taste this wonder at Kulminator, I hope I can make up for it some day – Orange-golden clear and beautiful; Very special, deep and super balanced nose with lots of complexity: still some wood, warm vinegar, very little well hidden raspberry; Balanced, but not exceptional body, a little watery, it doesn’t have the immense sourness that comes with most Cantillons, I guess it has mellowed out with time; Into very sour finish that finishes a bit to short, quite a bit of raspberry hear, together with some wood and some very, very late sweet mustard. You can easily taste age in this beer, but it is actually incredibly virile.

Bottle. 1979 vintage. The label is completely ravaged! Pours a bright orange-gold and relatively clear to start out with a small white head. The aroma is surprisingly very juicy for 27 years - not so much as the 3F Framboos but I suppose that is to be expected for the age. Lots of funkiness but not in the acidic horseblanket way - I get strange notes of mustard and pickles. The fruit flavour is much more subtle and as a result it’s quite soft though there is still plenty of life - carbonation or otherwise. Tartness is evident and there is significant fruit acid. As it progresses the raspberry begins to grow and it appears to be quite juicy and yet still remarkably soft. Unfathomable complexity as the liquid diminishes. The lower portion brought upon some large black chunks of what I imagine to be cork or just awful looking sediment. It took me a good part of two and a half hours to finish this entire bottle and my stomach wasn’t too happy about it - the great thing about the Kulminator is that I wasn’t short of other things to order in the interim. It’s truly amazing how well this has stood up with time but I still wish I could have tried it back in the day. Had a full 750mL bottle at Kulminator in Antwerp on May 16, 2006.

I knew that when I had secured tickets to Belgium last August for ZBF and Nacht van Grote Dorst that I would go to Antwerp and to Kulminator in search of this beer. I prayed that at least one bottle would be left. Well the second I arrived, I had my mind set on ordering this first. By the gods, they still had some. The 1979 bottle came out with an almost deteriorated corked stuck in the side of the basket the bottle rested in. It looked very aged and molded. I prayed again that this would not be ruined. The ears of the gods were open as this was, in a word, delicious. Everything I had hoped it would be. Amber orange with splashes of ruby. Tall sturdy light gold head. The aroma on this was to die for. Wafts of tartness encompassing a surprisingly still fruity and somewhat sweet raspberry note. Light leather, barnyard, horseblanket and damp basement. After 27 years, it’s still vital and rich. I sipped this, before taking a large mouthfull of it. Sour, but a restrained sourness, and not nearly as extreme as Cantillon is known for. That’s what happens after this amount of time, I guess, with a real lambic. Raspberry, unripened strawberries, light cat urine notes, wet wood, damp earth, and horseblanket. It still envelopes every part of my mouth with it’s tart goodness even after almost attaining three decades of age on it. Body is acidic, tart, and bone dry with a medium feel and almost full(!) carbonation. Still bubbly and resilient, to my surprise. Finishes with more sour fruits notes, wet earth, dank, dusty basement, old books, barnyard notes, damp forest and light cat urine. This was almost worth the trip to Belgium by itself - a gorgeous beer. One which left my mouth watering after I was done. Worth every Euro cent of the €25 I spent.

Bottle sampled at Kulminator. ornage colour, almost no head. Sweet but still with some woody acidity in the the aroma. Dry acidic flavour, raspberry stones, wood and rhubarb. Acidic but in a usual Cantillon way. A refreshing fruit drink, maybe over the top, though.

VINTAGE 1979. Vieille bouteille verte et poussiéreuse sans étiquette. Le bouchon est noirci et est en décomposition avancée, sentant la vieille cave sale et humide. Couleur orangée aux reflets cuivrés, faible quantité de mousse blanche tachetée. Arômes dont les fruits se font toujours très expressifs, même après toutes ces années. Fruits style framboise mais aussi rhubarbe et pommes vertes, étant initialement en compétition avec les vapeurs de vieille cave et de terre moisie…Heureusement celles-ci se résument éventuellement. Acidité lactique et acétique toujours présente, dans un bel équilibre, fruits surs et acide se mariant bien aux douces notes de madérisation, rappelant ainsi un vieux vin blanc. Texture huileuse, faible effervescence, tout en subtilité. Bouteille, Kulminator, Janvier 2006.