Meerts au Riesling
(has 2 batches)

Another one in this series of nine different fruit lambics recently launched by Tilquin, produced with 'meerts' (a 'tafelbier' version of lambic, in a sense) blended with two year old lambic and intended as light, fruity summer quenchers. Medium thick, dense but slowly opening, snow white, edge-retaining head sustained by lively 'champenoise' sparkling running through a misty lemon-yellow robe with grassy-greenish tinge, turning to a more apricot-like, deeper greenish yellow in the end, with the head all but gone by then. Aroma of clear Riesling grapes and Riesling wine, old lemon zest, green gooseberry, oxidized Granny Smith apple slices and apple seeds, citronella oil, fresh lemon verbena leaf, slight southernwood, honeysuckle flowers, a haybarn on a warm September afternoon, old books, very old and oxidized champagne, something funky and sweaty in the background. Crisp, vividly sour onset, lemony edges (a bit puckering for a moment but very radiant) with the natural sourness of the meerts and lambic enhanced by the lemony characteristics inherent to Riesling; lots of green apple and gooseberry as well, all kept bright and light-footed, with this elegant, refreshing tartness running through the whole, supported by a 'deeper' lactic sourness. Lots of minerally, lemony and juicy Riesling flavour, apple seed and citronella aspects in the finish, woody tannins, hay and grape seed oil, dry but still retaining some grape sweetness and fleshiness for balance. This is elegance to the highest degree, like an extra dry Riesling Sekt, light and gracious but with a lovely complexity and maturity; lambic funkiness meets Riesling wine in the most refined, festive and classy way possible. An absolute delight on a hot summer afternoon like today.