Family, Wine, Travel and The Bombers

FRAMBOISE BOON

Traditional Belgian Lambic - 100% spontaneously fermented ale. Aged 2 years in oak vats. Minimum 200 grams of real raspberries per liter. Brewed in Lembeek, the village that gave Lambic its name.

Vessel was a 355ml wine bottle, stopped with a cage and cork. I removed the cage and to the amusement of my wife, shot the cork across the living room. I poured it into one of my larger bowled wine glasses. As the liquid filled the glass, the strong aroma of Raspberries filled the room. I thought we were in trouble. I figured a cloying, syrupy flavored raspberry soda was to follow. The color in the glass was a dark reddish-brown-, almost like an oxidized, older vintage wine. It had a short lived head that settled down to a thin ring with light lacing. A view into the side of the glass revealed a turbid, unfiltered look. The viscosity was thinner then I expected.

A couple of swirls and I planted my nose to the rim to get a sinus filled raspberry explosion. Like fresh raspberry juice mixed with raspberry sherbet. After the initial raspberry shock settled down I got into the secondary aromas. It had a very strong iron-oxide smell, almost like wet, rusty nails. Sour red fruits and citrus also played within my nostrils. The time had come to drink this over-sweetened raspberry soda. I put the thin rim to my lips and...

...boy was I wrong. This was not cloying at all, in fact it was dominated by bitter, sour red fruit. Sour raspberry, sour strawberry and a definite acidic citrus component. I sat for a minute and waited for the "beer" part to kick in. Waited. And I waited some more. Then finally I got the smallest hint of wheat, but not as much as I would have liked. I also missed the funky barnyard tastes and smells that lambics are about. The carbonation was right up there with soda. It was a little bit thin and really no finish to speak about. Very hollow in the mid palate. It drank like a value priced red wine.

Would I be drinking this again? Probably not. Was it a total loss? Nope. It was a decent drink while watching the Rangers beat the Capitals 5-4 in a shootout. I would still rather drink Lindemans Framboise with very bitter dark chocolate, though.