Cantillon Saint Lamvinus

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Pours brightly and vibrant; kind of an electric orange-pink color. Heavily hazed. Huge stinky cheese, mold, and wet concrete aroma; tannic, soiled, dirty, juicy. Cinnamon, green apple, balsamic, pears. Definitively funky and bracingly violent. Flavor is a crisp, sour spiciness of raw wood mingled with aged balsamic vinegar and caramelized pear skins. Crushing. Searing raspberry acidity and stone ground brown mustard. Bit of stale wood chip, musty carpet and mildew, and wet grass in the mid palate; mouthfeel is generous and velvety, with a soft sparkle. The finish is simply stunning; a furious tide of raspberry and lemon juice leaving a coating of dry, burgundy infused irish cheddar. Acidity predominates, and doesn’t dry out to much; more of a dusty, cobwebby, soft merlot tannic bitterness. Pineapple rind. I needed a nice, soft cheese to cut through this a bit and didn’t have one. Truly great, and always intriguing.

Bottle picked up at Dranken Geers, Gent, Belgium and consumed at Loz’s parents 03-04-08 Pours looking like a slightly watered down rhesus negative blood sample, although I don’t suppose many bloods would have quite such a fluffy pink barbie head and be quite so fizzy. If I was a vampire this beer would look appealing, I’m not but hey it still looked quite a tasty number. Starts off with a funky red or rose? wine on the nose. Tastes funky, tangy, tingly and not as sharp as many other Cantillon’s but bloody good (if you’ll pardon the unintended pun) This cut through ny smoked mackerel pate very nicely indeed, not overly sour , some nice dryness and a touch of wood, very nice indeed.

On tap at the map room, chicago. Hazy, ruby red color with light pink head. Aroma is slight sour raspberries, grapes, medium sweetness. Flavor is quite nice bold fruit, with subtle sour/tartness, medium acidity, nice. Medium and well carbonated body. I expected something a lot huger but was still pleasantly surprised at how easily drinkable this was. 8 4 8 3 17 = 4 -- Rerate, thanks to 17th floor for sharing. ’05 vintage. Cloudy dark red with small white almost pink head. Aroma is stinky cheese with sour, big barnyard, some lacto, winey, dry sour red fruit, dirty. Sour, wine flavor with tart, a little vinegar but sweeter, than that, moldy funk, big lacto component, woddy makes you wanting for more. Medium and surprisingly active carbonation. So tasty and woddy, big barrel but complex. Really solid all around.

(2/26/08) Bottle at Delirium Cafe in Brussels. Hazy red with a quickly-disappearing white head. Acidic aroma with some sweetish fruitiness, grapes and some vinous character hints. Great sour flavor with citric fruitiness as well as some later notes of the Merlot grapes. A totally dry finish. Medium-bodied.

Bottle, bought @ SuperBest, Christiansfeld.
Pours a little muddy, deeb red-brown with a small, creamy film head. Aroma is acidic, with grapes, light cherries, apples and oak. Low carbonation, rather creamy and gets quite sticky. Flavour begins quite harsh, then turns softer with lots of wood, sweet fruits on top of the well-balanced dry tartness. Some caramel in the aftertaste.

Brownish red with a pink head. Acid and sour aroma with notes of grapes. The flavour is sour, but nicely balanced with a berrylike sweetness. It’s very vineous and complex. I liked it very much!

On tap @ maproom. pours a lovely still cranberry color with the faintist of pink heads quickly vanishing to the thinest white string of bubbles around the glass. Nose is understated, faint wine cranberry tart aroma, berry aroma gradually grows as it warms. Flavor is distinctly Cantillon with pleasant vinegar tartness and clean flavors of cranberry more than wine grape. Finish is lingering fruit skin (grape, cranberry, plum) with a tannic dryness characteristic of these flavors. There is a mild berry sweetness to the middle , though still that of unripened fruit. As it warms flavors become more brightly berry with some interesting spice notes. Body is nice and vinous. Quite delicious.

Aroma was at first of black currents, dry, with some rustic somewhat mold like lemony, bretty lambic funk. poured a medium purple color with a small light purple head and many tiny bubbles. Flavor grow more intensly of lambic as it warmed. Flavor started as black currents, with hints of lemon, and moderately sour. Bright citrus flavors grow towards the bottom of the glass into a nicely sour lambic, with some blackberry. Very soft palate. Another pleasure to drink from Cantillon.