Sour, tart, fruity, sweet. Stone fruit and whisky, dry wood, rich, excellent.

Bottle shared at the brewery. Opaque golden pour with a white head. Nose is huge whisky and oak notes: tannins, vanilla, light booze. There's some funk to it too, with citric notes. The taste shows a very prominent barrel character, again the tannins are quite out there, also some vanillin shows, the woody depth is there, the base beer being the counterbalance with it's lighter acids, funk and fruity esters. The barrel character is borderline too intense, but the uniqueness of the concept totally sold it for me.

Blend of lambics aged in French (!) whisky barrels, a recent addition to Cantillon’s steadily growing range. Pale greyish white, thinly moussy, feebly structured and quickly dissolving head, pale orange-tinged ‘old gold’ robe, misty. Aroma of unripe apricot, dry hay, indeed recognizable malt sweet whisky (but not so much the alcohol), cumin cheese, old walnut, dried celeriac, old green tea, wood, mugwort leaf, touch of Maggi, even processed fenugreek. Crisp and dry onset, unripe stonefruit, dried grapefruit peel, medium carbonated with vinous but notably astringent mouthfeel – bone dry from the start; bread-crusty backbone dried by lactic acidity and woody tannins, unripe and bitter dried fruitiness continuing with indeed retronasal whisky effect, ‘distorted’ by the lambic into a ‘dark green’ kind of aroma reminiscent of cumin and fenugreek again – though a touch of more whisky-associated peat is also noticeable. Long, dried-fruity, tannic but satisfying and complex finish. Not an easy one, powerful, robust and quite unique, but surely a true delight to even the most hardened lambic geek.

Bottle at Cantillon. Pours a cloudy gold with medium off white head that lasts. The aroma is funk, oak, floral, grape. Medium body, funky, grape skin, light tartness, very nice.

Bottle at the brewery. Vanilla, funk, oak, leafy notes, soft herbal, bourbon. Very old grain whisky. Medium sweet and sour, but also some bitterness. Over medium bodied. Lovely.

EB Quintessence Trip April 16-19. Wow! I had my doubts but the whiskey character on this one is amazing. Nothing too intense but enough to add another level of depth to an already amazing gueuze.