Lindemans Cuvée René Grand Cru 2005

Today was given over to spring cleaning. After a few hours of toil, the score was four yellow bags and two white bags -- that's paper recycling and trash in the Brussels waste colour scheme -- not a bad result. But ever better was a bottle of Lindemans Cuvée René Grand Cru I found hiding in amongst some old books and bottles. It's been sitting there for more than two years, I guess, but the bottling date was 2005, so it's five years old now.

Now, I had thought that, unlike other bottle-fermented Belgian beers, a gueuze like this wouldn't stand much aging: OK for a year or two, but five would be pushing it. We've even had a few bad experiences with some other old bottles of gueuze and lambic before -- opening them up only to find something closer to vinegar than beer. The enormous thunder-crack of the cork on this 750ml bottle to me was only a threatening confirmation that something had gone very wrong over time.

So, I was happily surprised to find this Lindemans Cuvée René Grand Cru very much worth drinking at the ripe old age of five. The sharp sourness of gueze is dominant, of course, but it also has an underlying nuttiness. Well, the back label does say, "improves in bottle with age"...