8.3

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

2002 Draught at Moan and Dove on 8/19/2005 with Eyedrinkale and Dan Shelton. Pours a vibrant, opaque, strawberry-pinkish red, with a bit of a ruddy-orange glow to it on the edges. Head is thin and filmy and pinkish-cream colored, but well-retained and provides ample lacing. Aroma is lemon juice, lemon rinds, oranges, very yogurty/lactobacillius notes, quite sour, with some sweet cherry pulp, a touch of very dry cask wood. Thoroughly pungent and quite lovely. Flavor begins with a woody dryness coupled with the signature lacto/pedio mix of Cantillon. Eminently drinkable right off the bat, I waste no time in downing a glass and have to go for a second to finish my thoughts. . . and then a third later. Anyways, the cherries were not as tart and were, perhaps, a bit too apparent for my liking. Adding to my displeasure, somewhat, was a note of what I would best describe as "coconut liqueur". I couldnt shake this taste from all three samples. It had a syrupy, fruity, yet dryish/sour flavor to it that I havent found in any other Cantillon beer. Could this be the syrup addition? Maybe. The flavor ends with plentiful cherry juice notes, more lemon and lacto notes and large dose of tartness lingering. Mouthfeel was spot-on, as always, from this brewery. Tiny bubbles, providing a wash of flavors over the palate and just tingly and perfect on the tongue.
I don’t really like that much fruit in my lambics, so I’m not entirely surprised that I wasn’t floored by this, but none the less, it’s damned good and fantastically drinkable. Not to mention, I’m sure I will enjoy an aged sample from the bottle significantly more. That is, if I ever let myself open one.

10

Excellent stuff. Quite sour but still perfectly balanced mix of cherries and sourness.