Zenne y Frontera (Season 17|18) Blend No. 49

Yes! ❤️

Bottled at Pressklubben, Stockholm. Hazy golden, no head. Oaky nose with plenty of barnyard. Tart with medium body and soft mouthfeel, low carbonation. Acetic vinegar, vinous oak, barnyard and yuzu. Low bitterness. Intense, complex and acetic.

Super bright and funky on the nose, smells like straight sherry and almost jammy grapes. Bit acidic, nice depth of flavor and barrel

Sour, sweet, bitter, fruity, acidic, vinegar, sherry, apples. Very good.

Bottle at a tasting in 100 piv. Very tasty, very complex. Rounded feeling, assertive acidity, but less than in 3 and 4 imo. Maybe a bit harsher, but that is only speaking about the acidity, overall feels smoother because it lacks most of the tartness and has more carbonation. I get a bit of solvent, high alcohols, but in an amount that serves the complexity - and maybe actually creates the rough edge I speak about above. Overall really good, between 3 and 4 for me.

The fifth Zenne y Frontera, a blend of lambics aged on sherry barrels but - contrary to batches 3 and 4 - not following the solera method; the difference with batch 6 seems to be only the selection of individual barrels (so one could wonder if batches 5 and 6 are not basically the same thing, according to the rules of this website, but I'll leave that to the admins). Tasted side by side with the three other new editions at Lambik-O-Droom. Mousy, bit irregular and uneven-bubbled, opening, eggshell-white, medium thick head, hazy warm peachy-golden robe. Aroma of unripe peaches, old lemon peel and even a whiff of stale lemon juice, wet oak wood, sour apples, dry cider, sherry vinegar, apricot kernels, damp hay, something vaguely sulfuric (egg yolk, sewer water even). Estery onset, sour plum and gooseberry impressions dominating, sharpish lemony acidic edge, clearly different from batches 3 and 4 but in line with batch 6; medium carb, drying spritzy lactic sourness continuing over a lean bready malt and grain base, with Brettanomyces-induced sweaty-funky and grass silage-like aspects showing up at the back. Dried hay and astringent fruity sourness go hand in hand with an earthy-yeasty touch and woody tannins in the finishing stage, with even an almost sweetish apricot-like core hidden within, I guess the only hint at actual sherry, because I see no other explanation for this aspect, which remains again very, very subtle, all things considered. Supple, fruity, lemony, sour, a bit funky: this, in a way, seems feels more 'familiar' to the lambic drinking palate than batches 3 and 4, closer to 3 Fonteinen's more regular geuze offerings perhaps, but the sherry aspect is again a bit too subtle and lacks power to distinguish it from the first two Zenne versions, which were almost magical experiences in the lambic world. Within these four new versions, batches 5 and 6 are clearly more tied together than they are with the two others (3 and 4), or than the two others are to each other.

Pours darker blonde, small white head. Smell is full-on lambic. Hidden sherry. Taste is full, sharp, acetic ( slightly ) , hidden barrel features. Nice, tad more malty than b4, also a bit less sherry than hoped for.