23.01.2016, 0,75l bottle @ home:
Nice creamy mediumlasting head. Aroma is fresh sour-ish, elderflower, sour grass, minerals, oak, basil, citrus peel, old rope, sour socks, weeds, bark, citrus acid. Taste is sour-ish dry, sour grass, elderflower, basil, citrus acid, old rope, oak, leafs, citrus peel, sorrel, bark. Medium bitterness, sour-ish dry mouthfeel. Nice one.

Bottle at Kenny’s 20K, thanks to Mr 5K, Matteo. It pours hazy gold with a thick white head. The nose is fresh elderflower, perfumed, sherbet, gooseberry, straw, lemon peel, wood and light vanilla. The taste is crisp, clean, tart, good mouth-pucker, elderflower, light acidity, preserved lemon, peppery spice, sherbet and Granny Smith apple with a firmly dry finish. Medium body and fine, prickly carbonation. Crisp, tart and juicy. Rather drinkable. Very nice work Lindemans!

I remember that when Spontanbasil hit the market, I expressed my hope that Lindemans would continue experimenting with flavoured lambics, and here it is then: a geuze with elderflowers. Not the first one (see Cantillon Mamouche), but I am still happy to see that Lindemans, who produces excellent lambic, is taking a new direction with these authentic lambic products. This one has a medium thick, steady, moussy, snow white head vanishing in the end, and a deep, warm ’old gold’ colour, lightly hazy at first with vivid ’champenoise’ sparkling. The aroma makes my mouth water: the typical ’malse’ and elegant lambic character expected from the brand, with impressions of lime juice, dry white wine, wet wood, artisanal cider, starfruit, damp earth, freshly cut nettles in spring, redcurrant, unripe stonefruit, accompanied by a delicate, subtle honeyish elderblossom fragrance, at its most detectable when opening the bottle but returning with more ’force’ when the deposit is gradually added, which also renders the aroma in general a bit ’heavier’ and a lot more earthy. Spritzy and crisp in the mouth, with a champagne-like, almost ’crystalline’ carbonation, very refreshing; there is a sharp, almost puckering lemon acidity from onset to finish, overseeing a bunch of fruity esters (gooseberry, unripe peach, kiwano) and a soft and restrained but structurally important lactic acidity of sour cream, all built on top of a light, supple malt and wheat underground. The elderblossom effect returns retronasally along with the lambic esteriness, but as in the aroma, stays volatile and hard to ’catch’, with just a whiff of floral, almost honeyish sweetness popping up and then vanishing again. This floral and somewhat soapy sweetishness is, however, much more clearly present in the aftertaste, amidst the soft but persistive sourness, the drying woodiness and the lingering lambic esters; very far away, a brief accent of dry, earthy hops is noticeable, but like the elderblossom, has vanished already by the time you noticed it. The soapy, honeyish floral elderblossom sweetness gets the last word and keeps hanging around in the back of the mouth long after swallowing. Elegance is key here: not unlike Spontanbasil, this is a very delicate product, lean and light in body, adorned with lambic funkiness but in a mild, gentle kind of way, and metaphorically ’feminin’ in character. The lemony acidity keeps it fresh, supple and quenching, like a young Chardonnay. The notorious high quality of Lindemans’ lambic truly shines here as well. I’m a fan.