June 10, 2000 -- This didn't start out as a KTT. It was a warm Thursday and I had been working on a story all afternoon and well into the evening. Eventually, my thirst got to me.

Fortunately, a week earlier I had been given a seven-year-old bottle of Selection Lambic, the traditional gueuze brewed at the Interbrew-owned Belle-Vue brewery in Brussels. It seemed like the perfect thing to open.

I had enjoyed a seven-year-old bottle of this beer before, during the summer of 1997 while aboard a train from Brussels to Brugges, and had enjoyed it quite a bit. I was most interested to see if I could repeat the experience.

The beer, of course, was not the same as the one I had enjoyed three years earlier. The nature of lambics (spontaneously fermented wheat beers) is such that each brew is quite different from the next. And even when these variable brews are blended into gueuze, a style which typically includes wood-conditioned lambics of one to three years of age, some inconsistency from year to year is to be expected, even relished.

The Selection Lambic this time was much fruitier than I remember it being in 1997. Along with the tartness characteristic of a true lambic, there was a large degree of fruitiness in this beer, which could even be perceived as a relative sweetness. ("Relative" because any amount of sweetness in a traditional lambic sits well below a blanket of tart and barnyardy notes.) I caught hints of apricot, peach, even a bit of gooseberry (think of a sauvignon blanc wine). While it was certainly a refreshing beer, which I needed, I thought that it was a trifle out of balance and lacking full complexity. I did enjoy it, though.

The second beer I sampled that night was a seven-year-old bottle of Speciale Noel from Brasserie la Binchoise of Binche, Belgium. A 9% powerhouse, I had cellared this one myself (the Selection Lambic had been cellared at the brewery), and a week earlier had carefully transferred it to the refrigerator from the cellar. It had thrown a great deal of sediment, though, and as I inspected the accumulated mass that had settled in the bottle, I was less than hopeful.

My pessimism could not have been more unfounded. The Speciale Noel was an amazing beer, far better than I remember it being seven years earlier. The nose was big and filled with orange peel, nutmeg and other spice, while the body demonstrated an great complexity with notes of date, cinnamon, chocolate fudge, nutmeg and dark chocolate. Christine and I enjoyed it with our dinner of fresh fettucine with Vidalia onion, garlic and country sausage and could scarcely have been happier.

Search The Real Beer Library For More Articles Related To: Interbrew, Belle-Vue, Brasserie la Binchoise

Feedback?

We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact SBWoB by clicking on the link below. Or you can add your comments when you sign up for the World of Beer Update, a mid-month e-mail newsletter that brings even more of the world of beer to your computer.

Send Feedback To: beaumont@worldofbeer.com