Best Cantillon Candidate for Long Aging

i'd vote classic. lou pepe and champions both have interesting "have it fresher" characteristics, though lou pepe less so.

 

Give Classic a shot, that would be the one I'd do. In reality, they'll all hold up really well. Hell, I had a 1993 Rose de Gambrinus earlier this year, and it was epically sour and delicious.

 

Any Gueuze!

 

I would age Classic over Champions. Champions had such a great fruitiness to it that would fade.

 

Another vote for Classic. You don't have to worry about fruit, hops, etc. unlike some of the other Cantillon choices.

 

I like Classic, fresh or aged. However, I must say the Lou Pepe Gueuze gets better with age...

 

Go for a bigger bottle, 75 cl rather than 37.5. I've had long-lived bottles of the classic gueuze as well as Iris (technically not lambic because no wheat but a nice variation made by the same method, and has held up well in a few older bottles I've tried)

 

I'd drink any 375 from them whenever you feel like it. They specifically upgraded the corks on their 750s, not their 375s, a year or two ago, which implies the corks aren't great on the 375s.

 

I've had plenty of 375's and 750's over the last ten years with bad corks that aged just fine. I don;t think the cork change is going to matter a whole lot.

 

Well first you would actually have to find anything Cantillon. Another alternative would be Tilquin Ancient Gueuze, which has some Cantillon in it.

 

don't age anything with fruit. you will lose all of the specialness of the fruit. Jean himself will tell you that Lou Pepe is best consumed after bottling and not waiting. same with Iris.
I have some bio-lambic from 2011 and, to be honest, i prefer it closer to bottling date. the amount of citrus has migrated from lime to grapefruit territory. less clean and crisp, more funk.

 

Take the exact opposite of what he said above, and that's my opinion on the matter...

 

Gueuze, lambics and fou foune.

 

I love Rose with 3 or so years on it. Fantastic!

 

Agree 100% and I can confirm the comments of Jean. He is at a loss as to why Americans "age out" the fruit. He indicated that he spends a lot of money getting the best fruit he can find and the Americans age it out and never get the benefit of what he intends with the beer.

OK, I confess that I do like aged Cantillons of all kinds. However, and while it's hard to get yourself to open those new bottles, the fruit based are simply best young. Try it; you'll like it! JMO

 

For me, without age the Lou Pepes (Fram/Kriek) taste watery and lack funk and sourness, no complexity what-so-ever IMHO.

 

Thirded, Fruit Cantillon should NOT be aged (hoarded).

 

it's all personal preference, natch.
would i age a Lou Pepe for 5 years? no.
one year, max. and i have and there's a noticeable taste difference. i still prefer them fresh(er).

now, someone should mention to Jean to perhaps use some older lambic and make Lou Pepe with that. perhaps that would be more complex.