Vandenbroek: Watergeus + Vin Jaune (Netherlands: Geuze lambic: 6.4% ABV)
Visual: Clean pale yellow gold. A fizzed up head that quickly stills. Some small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Dry white wine. Dry cider. Tart apples. Sharp lemon. Tart white grapes. Oats to Alpen muesli. Dry cheesecake and lemon curd.
Body: Smooth. Crushed walnuts. Sharp lemon. Oats. Chalk touch. Dry white wine. Lemon cordial. Tart white grapes.
Finish: Madeira cake. Light charred oak. Dry cider. Oak and muesli. Slight pears. Lemony and lemon cake. Some white grapes.
Conclusion: I adore the standard Watergeus, it is one of my favorite lambics. I know very little about Vin Jaune, however I presume it is something special based on its name being added here. So how do those combine with a few years aging to change things up a bit?
What you get is something still very good, drier in a way that reminds me of the more attenuated end of the Belgian lambics, but laced through with a sour sweet lemon not that reminds me slightly of sour lemon sauce drizzled desserts, which puts a heck of a lot of contrast against that drier background.
It still has a familiar savoury nuttiness which I recognize from standard Watergeus, and an apple to cider influence freshening it up. Despite the dryness it still shows a bit more weight to the body than most lambics, probably to do with the slightly higher abv. So familiar, just now drier and more white wine like, yet laced through with that sweet sour lemon that makes it stand out.
In a pinch I would say standard Watergeus feels the more balanced and robustly polished of the two. A real lambic to return to over and over again. This however is a lovely varient and dangerously easy to drink. The attenuated dryness and sourness of the lambic some how balance here to feel challenging yet far too drinkable for 6.4%.
Another great one from Vandenbroek
Background: Oh very nice indeed. A few years ago I tried a whole bunch of Vandenbroek lambics and very much intended to go back and try more, but as with many things I kept getting distracted by other releases. So, when I saw this, along with a couple of other Vandenbroek releases, super cheap to clear at Independent Spirit I snapped it up. The label is slightly faded by the years, but at an estimate this has had about three years aging since release, so makes an even better deal. Standard Watergeus is one of my favorite lambics, I was a bit confused by what the “+ Vin Jaune” entailed though. From a google I know Vin Jaune is a kind of white wine from France but I have never tried. Odder still, looking online it is often listed as a fruit lambic, when I didn’t think any fruit had been added – my presumption was it had been aged in Vin Jaune casks. From a chat with the nice people at Indie Spirit seems I was wrong on that, looks like Vin Jaune was directly added to the lambic – so not what I would directly think of as fruit – I’ve listed as Geuze like standard Watergeus as it doesn’t seem to neatly fit into any style with that extra wine infusion.
