Pours a darker amber, medium large white head. Very intense aroma of minerals and oak, funk and brett fill the room. Up close, much sharper and citrussy. Taste is full, fairly creamy. high in citric notes, very high in brett and a whiff of 'petrol'. less mineral and oak than the aroma (from distance) made me anticipate. The older lambic really does add a dimension to me, and it's quite different than the 'regular' OG / A&G for that matter. High carbonation (perhaps a tad too high to my taste) . very enjoyable. Not amongst the aboslute peak they made, but those are big shoes to fill.

Towering, just off-white head, unheard of for a gueuze. Orangeish golden beer, hazy. Dry, spicy & herbal, straw, farmyard, mounting horseblanket, leathersoap. Slight if remarkable sweetness, sweet wheat, almost bready, again leather(soap), horseblanket; dried stonefruit with a lot of lactic acid. Acidthinning, light acidburn, (wheat)slickness against the lingual incisors. Quite good Oude Gueuze, but to me, the difference with the current better gueuzebottlings is very small indeed.

The first edition of a special 'Christmas geuze' by 3 Fonteinen, not because the lambic was flavoured with Christmas spices (luckily, perhaps), but a special version of the famed Cuvée Armand & Gaston enriched with a portion of five year old lambic to create extra depth. Snow white, medium thick, bit irregularly edged, bubbly head sustained by a storm of sparkling swirling through a hazy golden robe with apricot glow. Intense, refined bouquet of unripe peach, freshly cut green apple, green gooseberry, old wood, kimchi, green leek, old leather, unripe nectarine, rhubarb, lime juice, sweat, pickled onions, green walnut, dry earth, old dry sherry. Very crisp, 'crystalline' onset, lots of gooseberry, green plum, Granny Smith apple, redcurrant and unripe apricot impressions, sharp yet not harsh - tingling with 'champenoise' effervescence in an essentially smooth, full, bready core laced with green-fruity lactic sourness and lots of ongoing minerality. Tannic woodiness in the finish, dry sherry notes - a bit nutty even, but not as pronounced as I was expecting seen the average age of the lambics; add a perfectly tuned leathery Brett funkiness and combine it with this very crisp, fruity splendour and what you have, is this absolute gem of a geuze, perhaps feeling more 'summery' than 'Christmassy', but blended to utmost perfection. This is 3 Fonteinen geuze blending at its best, even topping the already majestic Cuvée Armand & Gaston for me... The depth and complexity of the five year old lambic does make a difference, without deviating too much from what one expects from a geuze by this world class producer. I hope this one will be repeated every year, it truly adds something to the already crowded world of traditionally made lambic beers.