6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Hazy, medium brown colour. Toasty, light blackcurrant character. Sharp acidity. Not really my vibe.

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

Towering pink-purplish head, stable; fully opaque, almost black purple beer. Horseblanket, dark fruit & berries, violets, purple gooseberry, (unripe) elderberries. Cassis juice, elderberry, elderberry syrup thinned, ink. Warming up, the elderberry gets more obvious, gumming the cassis flavour. Feels better bodied, oiler than most real lambics. Very well-carbonated. Special.

8.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8

Similarly to Mûre Rullquin and Cassis Rullquin, this is a 'fruited' version of classic Rullquin, created in 2022 and making use of elderberrry; I somehow missed it back then so I was very happy to stumble upon a remaining bottle for sale at Het Huis van de Geuze. Medium thick, regularly shaped, tiny-bubbled, pale greyish beige, steady ring for a head with flat 'islands' floating around in the middle but all dissolving after a while; very dark cherry red robe - in fact looking almost blackish - with a fiery ruby glow, a dark and mysterious hue. Aroma of indeed elderberries - actual fresh elderberries picked straight from the bush like I did so often in my youth, even that somewhat unpleasantly herbal but interesting scent of elder leaves and even - faraway in the background - a vague note of the sweet elderberry 'jenever' my late grandmother made many a decade ago, also impressions of dark plum and blackberry, fruit yoghurt, brown bread crust, sourdough, wet wood, green apple slices, toast, forest floor, dry earth or humus, some Japanese dried fruit tea, young beech leaves, background hints of funky sweat, chlorine, wood bluegrass. Crisply tart, berry-laden onset, lots of astringent green plum and unripe peach effects underneath a softer, 'sweeter', juicier elderberry dosage, generous but still leaving room for the lambic's own flavours to unfold; yet when pushing the tongue against the roof of the mouth, that tangy, tannic yet slightly sweet, herbal flavour of elderberries becomes omnipresent for a moment - making me muse again about the way elderberries were used by my grandmothers on the countryside in days long gone, because the flavour of not just ripe elderberries but also of that old homemade elderberry syrup are brought back from deep memory. Carbonation is quite prickly and stingy, but this fits well with the tangy character of the berries and the tartness of the lambic. Lactic acidity runs like a stream through it all and acts like a conveyor belt to carry along all the fruitiness over a malty floor, with some breadiness from the lambic but also, and much stronger, a brown bread and even slight toast effect from the dark Rulles that actually makes up the major part of the basic blend (but in all honesty and under the motto of "Brett eats everything", the much smaller portion of lambic is, as in the other variants, equally strong as the Rulles Brune). Woody notes set in as a 'broad' toasty bitter malt effect forms a supporting stage (lingering beyond everything else in the end and presumably justifying the "sour stout" classification here); some sweaty funk from Brettanomyces pops up along with that 'forest floor'-like earthiness all these Rullquin variants have - making for a complex ending, in which the 'dark fruitiness' of the elderberries still plays the leading role. Retronasally, I get something sherry-like as well, possibly an ageing effect, but it too seems steeped in elderberries - like an oxidized elderberry wine, though I admittedly have no idea what that is supposed to taste like. In any case: this is one complex concoction, an almost traditionally conceived 'bière de coupage' (Rullquin) embellished with a generous dosage of real elderberries, which are shown in every aspect they are capable of, from wild-picked actual berries over herbal elder leaves to homemade elderberry syrup (or jam, even). It seems that 'fruit lambic specialist' Tilquin is, more than any other lambic producer, capable of thoroughly extracting every facet and every component out of the fruit he uses - I had this in many of his other fruit lambics as well, whether they were also Rullquin variants or not. One to sample carefully sip by sip - you will discover something new each time. Glad I bought this one - and glad it has aged for three years now, doubtlessly this has only brought improvement. Looking forward to those new coffee variants of Rullquin too now - but perhaps those too need a couple of years in the cellar first...

7.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

750mL bottle at Tilquin, pours a deep dark mahogany with a medium beige head. Aroma has soft roasted malt, a touch of floral berry, and gentle funk. Flavour has a nice blend of roaster malt, subtle tart elderberry, oak, and a hint of funk. Roasty, tart and gentle funky. Very good.

7.5

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

750mL bottle at the brewery. Pours clear mahagony with an off-white head. Elderflower, roasted malt, dark berries. Flavour has elderflower, roasted malt, dark currants. I like this.

7

Malm� December tasting (14/12/2024) - getting notes of sour berry fruit, some elderflower, light herbals, wooden accents, medium body and acidity, lingering sour floral and herbal and fruity finish. Lovely.

7.8

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7

Tap at BXL. Deeper copper-brown colour. Nice fruityness combines with light malt sweetness and mid-intense acidity and funk, very much my cup of tea.

7

Botella de @La Mundial, Madrid Madrid. 19/01/2025. Color marrón aromas y sabores frutas del bosque, ácida, cuerpo ligero.

7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Sample at Palace Hall, Malmö December tasting (14/12/2024) - getting notes of sour berry fruit, some elderflower, light herbals, wooden accents, medium body and acidity, lingering sour floral and herbal and fruity finish. Lovely.

6.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

18.09.2024, 0,75l bottle (21-22 vintage) @ home:
Nice foamy longlasting head, hazy dark reddish brown color. Aroma is slightly sweet sour-ish floral, berry skin, dark malts, soil, sour dark berries, oak, old rope, grass, flowers. Taste is slightly sweet sour-ish fruity, sour dark berries, soda powder, soil, dark malts, minerals, grass, oak, flowers, old rope, mild vinegar. Medium bitterness, slightly dry sour-ish fruity mouthfeel. Nice enough.