Bottle ahared thanks to Alexander. Gusher. Bit hazy deep purple. Funky, quite some pinot noir, dry oak, wheat, strawberries, vanilla, lemon. Just medium sour, light sweet. Solid medium bodied with dry finish. Nice.

Not sure if Brewver's policy allows for long-extinct beers to be reviewed 'backwards' - I was never going to add this one, but seeing how a review did appear for it, I cannot resist writing a brief impression. From memory, because it has been two and a half years since I got the chance to sample this - from the private stash of Kris Herteleer at the Oerbier Café (with special thanks to Bart Van Poucke). At then 25 years of age, it still showed a decent, if loosely structured snow white head upon pouring (quickly receding though), crowning a warm peach-tinged old golden robe with proportionally still lively sparkling. Deep bouquet of all the classic geuze features, green apple, wet wood, unripe stonefruit, gooseberry, some wet leather but not too much funk - just a clean, crisp, green-fruity geuze, a general impression which was continued in the mouth, full-bodied, balanced and crisp, with all the acids in good balance and no signs of oxidation. Texture and flavour were - remarkably - as crisp as if it were a bottle of maximum half its age, I even got (almost) nothing of old sherry or old oxidised wine: this bottle must have been kept in the ideal circumstances. I recall being surprised at the time at never having had a beer - not even a geuze - which had been preserved so exceptionally well after so many years, as if time has had no effect on it at all. I also recall feeling humbled by being able to taste something created by Willem Van Herreweghe, the founder of De Cam (Karel only took over in 2000 I believe) and one of those iconic personalities in the late 20th-century Belgian brewing world. I should have taken notes at the time, but I am glad the memory was impressive enough to still be able to write about it after two years. My score here is purely formal and does not really mean anything in a special case (one of only 300 bottles made apparently) like this.

'Mixed' fruit lambic by De Cam, with 60% raspberries and 40% sour cherries; so far apparently only very limitedly made, the very small amounts of bottles that were distributed are already off the market now (I had to purchase the very last bottle some French webshop had in stock), but it seems De Cam itself still has a few in stock for on-site consumption (they cannot leave the brewery because quantities are so small that owner Karel Goddeau did not find it worthwile to order a batch of new labels for them). No gushing, but after a minute or so, rising foam did reach the bottle neck, overflowed and oozed down along the label, creating a blood-like stain on my table cloth. Medium thick, long closed and firm, pale off-lilac, dense to almost creamy head on an exceptionally dark burgundy red robe with magenta glow, misty at first but soon densely cloudy. Aroma of bursting ripe cherries and of course red raspberries but in spite of the proportions the first still seem more powerful than the latter, homemade cherry wine, cooked red plums, reduced port sauce almost, very old and oxidized red wine, lots of soaking wet oak wood, cherry tree leaves in autumn, a swimming pool-like effect as in many 'oude krieken', medlar, beef steak fungus, muddy farmland in the background, honey suckle, wet slates, wild dark berries, red apple, blueberry jam, distant meaty note (horse steak). Full-on fruity and densely juicy in the onset, thick cherry jam and raspberry wine effects, hints of sour tomatoes, red plums, red apple (crisp element) and sloeberries, tart throughout but meaty and beefy as well, almost reminiscent of some of those thick fruit lambics Mikkeller did back in the heydays of EU craft beer; red fruit acidity accompanies the palate further on, unveiling a limestone-tinged minerality from the effervescence (which does little here to counter that somewhat slurry effect) and underlying sourdoughy breadiness. The tartness has lactic features but is mostly of a fruit-acidic nature, amplified by the tannins from the skins and pits; woody and funky elements add complexity at the back, hinting at wet leather, damp leaves, farmland and soaking wet barrels. Meaty esters - again, as in raw horse steak - accompany this dense, sour red fruitiness as it pierces down into the throat, leaving behind a lovely vinosity, as if you just had a glass of concentrated sour cherry juice. Raspberries add sharper flavours than cherries here but the cherries do provide this thick, almost slurry density and vinosity - this lambic is indeed filled to the brim with real fruit and presents in the most generous way possible. De Cam has produced some truly majestic fruit lambics throughout the years - next to downright weird ones - and I think this Friek (a contraction of 'framboos' and 'kriek' of course, not unique to De Cam by the way) belongs right up there with the best. 'Rare' (maybe even extinct by now for all I know) does equal 'exceptional' in this case. Glad I persevered in hunting this one down - but I recommend Karel to buy those labels anyway and produce this beauty anew in larger volume. The world deserves it.

Bottle pour at Zwanze Day 2026, at The Sovereign in Washington DC. Poured a mostly clear golden yellow color with a medium sized white head. Aroma was tart apricots. Flavor was pleasant fruity apricots, light sour notes, but not overly tart, other than that fresh fruit tartness. Really nice stuff actually.