Cantillon Cuvée Des Champions - Brasserie Cantillon

Goldorak

Quebec (Canada)

3.98/5  rDev -9.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Appearance: A darker shade of cider, no head worthy of mention.

Smell: That's odd, it has a sweeter aroma that I wasn't expecting, especially from an unblended lambic. A berry character that reminded me of Oudbeitje Lambic.

Taste: You can see he added both fresh hops and candi sugar to help out with carbonation. And I thought Jean Pierre didn't like sweetness in his Beers...The sweet and sour combo is quite nice, but this isn't my favorite.

Serving type: bottle

07-14-2005 00:45:46 | More by Goldorak

Rastacouere

Quebec (Canada)

4.18/5  rDev -4.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Opaque gold, very murky, a nice sight color wise, but unfortunately a quickly departing head. Aroma feels surprisingly sweet, as always well presented on a sweaty and leathery dominated wild yeast top ground. More floral than most, thanks to those untamed hops. It develops a pleasant horsey saltiness as it gains temperature. It’s hard to explain how those hops blend in with the rest, but it creates a cheesier character than the yeast alone would I feel. Abundant grapefruit taste. Strong big bubbles, surprising considering the small shape of the head, pretty full bodied as well, I like that. Oldish taste despite the fresh aroma. Sweet and easy drinking proposing a lemon slice here and there that grows into a pungent tartness reminiscent of a straight lambic. I kinda dig the balance, but it doesn’t stand out as one of my favourites, I just like its originality. A dessert lambic? Why not!

Serving type: bottle

04-21-2005 15:44:11 | More by Rastacouere

francisweizen

Australia

4.63/5  rDev +5.5%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

750ml Bottle. 2004 Vintage. Dark golden yellow with a nice head of tight white foam. Lacing is minimal, but pretty none-the-less. Aromas are all lactic lambic funkiness with a real juicy earthiness abounding in this particular vintage bottling. I get hints of horse blanket in the aromas as well as hints of very acidic fruits, musty juice, and more. Ya know, the normal stuff. The taste is exceptional but very subdued for a Cantillon. This is not nearly as sharp, acrid, or acidic as most of Cantillons other offerings. This is quite juciy in fact, and less dry than most other gueuzes available on the market today. There is also a distinctively bitter aftertaste, that must be from the use of dry hopping. Although this brew is still far from, what i'd call, hoppy. Mouthfeel is champagne like. Spritzy and grand, and the drinkability is absolutely awesome. Wow, what a quaffable, laid back gueuze from the masters of lambic. I need to try the Loerik next. For sure.

Serving type: bottle

02-28-2005 21:24:29 | More by francisweizen

Dukeofearl

California

4.35/5  rDev -0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

As described by my Brussels friend, BelgianBeers (who kindly presented this to me during the Belgian Beer Paradise festival in Brussels, September 2004), after he acquired it on its first day of release:

“It tastes very much like their regular geuze, but with the added bonus of a delicate bitterness, especially in the finish, brought about by dry-hopping. Another difference with the regular geuze (which, as you probably know, is a blend of one, two and three-year old lambics) is that this is a blend of two-year old lambics only. The refermentation in the bottle is sparked by adding a tiny dose of priming sugar (with regular geuze, the sugar-rich young lambic performs this function). From the brewery's last email: "The "Cuvée des Champions", made to celebrate the promotion of the Royale Union Saint-Gilloise football team to the second division, is available. Just like the "Cuvée 1904", made to commemorate the centenary of the team's first title, it is a selection of two years old lambics which underwent a cold hopping in the casks and a second fermentation in the bottle."

Presentation: 75 cl bottle with a yellow and purple label with an emblem of “USG” in yellow and purple circles (the team’s colors, I assume). “In celebration of the title..." (in French) proclaimed on the label. Cantillon Brewery is only identified in small type on the label.

Appearance: Pours dark golden, slightly cloudy with a thin head and a small stream of steady carbonation.

Aroma: Oh, there it is, that familiar lambic sour. Not as strong as some, sour apples, sour champagne fruitiness hidden behind the sour sourness.

Flavor: Sour, tart, sour, dry, and with that barnyard flavor so similar to this style of beer. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference between this and Cantillon’s gueuze- I wish I had done a side-by-side taste comparison.

Mouthfeel: As is common with this style, a very tart, mouthpuckering event. Full mouthfeel (if full is the opposite of watery).

Drinkability: As with the other products, I really like this when the mood strikes (when it’s warm, with a good meal, when I don’t want a strong, high-ABV beer, when I want to reflect on travels to Belgium). But it’s not something I would drink all the time.

Overall: I like this as I like the Cantillon products, but to be honest, I have yet to learn to fully appreciate these beers. I’ll keep trying though, because I do like this one (and it’s siblings).

Serving type: bottle

01-23-2005 22:32:26 | More by Dukeofearl