Oude Geuze

Next to all the fruit lambics released at a rapid pace by the Kestemont family, operating in the buildings of the former Goossens lambic brewery, they have also been working on a geuze, with my sample apparently belonging to a second batch already. From a 37.5 cl bottle with cork which was near to impossible to remove by hand so I had to use a corkscrew. Medium thick, densely settling, snow white, largely closed head (for quite a while before opening eventually) on a misty apricot blonde robe with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of freshly cut red apple, green plum, rainwater, oak wood (even some vanillin), sorrel, ripe purple gooseberries, minerals, stewed rhubarb, unripe peach, vague background hints of spoiled white wine (or natural wine if you will), urine, farmland and gypsum. Crisp onset, unripe green plum and gooseberry tartness with some wryness to it, lemony edges yet still not too 'neig', minerally effervescence effects but still rather soft for a geuze; rounded body, bready core under heavy lactic tartness in a 'sedate' kind of way, while these sharper green fruit effects travel along. The minerality continues too, accentuated by woody tannins adding a nice oaky aroma retronasally (albeit subtle); lingering unripe stonefruit wryness and hard green apple sourness as well as a 'deep' and earthy old hop bitterish note. After tasting their matured lambic in Leuven, I was curious to find out about this most prestigious of lambic variants by the same producer - and even though this is a perfectly credible, full-fledged 'oude' geuze, it still lacks a bit of depth and complexity to truly stand up against the powers that be in this field. It ticks all the boxes as a 'malse' and very quaffable example of the style, but I think greater heights can be reached, with a more diverse array of acids, more Brett effects and so on - but I think this is indeed a bit too young still and could benefit from ageing, when Brett starts to set in. One to watch - so for now, benefit of the doubt for me.

Bottle. 6% according to the label. Bottled 28-dec-2022. Color: Lightly hazy golden, thin white head. Aroma: Tart and sweet, fruity, subtle funky, wood. Taste: Still quite sweet, light tartness, fruity sweet and tart apple, subtle gooseberry, citrus and hints of grape. Light hints of hay. Very smooth mouthfeel. Oak wood, tannins, dry-ish. Subtle rural funk. Low carbonation. Ok but a bit one-dimensional. No excitement. Maybe still too young, will try to get a more ripened one in future.