Cantillon: Sang Bleu (Belgium: Fruit Lambic: 6% ABV)
Visual: Deep raspberry red body with a thin reddened head.
Nose: Tart. Raspberry. Wet twigs. Vinegar. Sour grapes. Slight sulfur. Strawberries.
Body: Smooth, almost light. Blueberry. Vinegar. Tart yellow raspberry. Some white dry grapes. Lemon. Slight honey.
Finish: Watered down vinegar. Lemon. Honey. Sour green grapes. Strawberry.
Conclusion: This is a slow building, unusual for a Cantillon which are often intense from the get go. Initially it felt kind of light, with a slight vinegar note with blueberry tones over that. I didn’t hate it, the vinegar notes were mild enough to not be that painful, but like this it did not jump out at me. It was juicer and less dry than a lot of lambics, but those vinegar notes, mild as they were, did not make for a good introduction for me.
Time lets it build up a sheen on your tongue and with that a range of flavours with it, bringing a lot more into play. My first surprise was a honey sheen that came out, especially in the finish. Normally I would call it psychosomatic from the fact the berries in it are called honey-berries, but it came out so slowly, subtly and naturally that I just gradually became aware of it in a way that makes it feel like a real note.
Then I found more lemon freshness giving a better sign of the base lambic character, and better defined white wine like grapes notes help accentuate that character. Finally a strawberry sweet touch comes out from the more blueberry like notes. It is a fantastically complex lambic when you give it time.
The vinegar notes never completely go away, and while it does give a depth I think some lambic fans will love, for me if its not my favorite note, but still overall this is a very good and complex beer.
So, with that knowledge hopefully you have enough info to decide how you feel about such notes and be prepared if you decided to give this wonderfully complex beer a go.
Background: I eternally feel so lucky I have so much happening within a reasonable distance of me. For example Moor taproom has Zwanze day each year it is on (every two years now, as opposed to the original every year). This year the Zwanze sounded like a big one, so I decided to open with something more gentle, and once again they had an absolutely amazing tap list and set of bottles. This one Sang Bleu is made with honeyberry (or to be specific haskap berries according to the internet) and sounded a good starting point. A quick google tells me it used to be called Camerise Lambic, which will just add to confusion when I try to remember which Cantillon beers I have had. While I took a photo of the bottle as it is very pretty, this was drunk from a tap pour. I have had a confused relationship with Cantillon over the years but appreciate them enough I am always excited to try a new one.
