Looking for Cantillon

I will unreservedly agree with you that Cantillon makes the best moderately accessible fruit Lambics. If only Armand would release his good ones more often...

 

Same here. 3F became scarce before Cantillon did. Now they're both almost impossible to find. I'm lucky to score a couple bottles of either annually.

 

And the hype for the Framboos is WAY beyond any Cantillon at this point (with the exception of the whale one offs). Some on the British guys I know who went to Copenhagen and scored some Famboos have been getting 10+ rare ass expensive bottles for one Framboos and that is the new batch never mind the first bottling. I almost soiled myself when I saw what people are willing to trade and ship overseas for a bottle.

 

Hanssens sticks around here. We're actually fortunate -- despite Cantillon and 3F disappearing, we've still got some good gueuze's available -- Hanssens, Tilquin, Girardin black, etc.

Cantillon's absence is really felt when it comes to fruit lambics. Aside from Mariage Parfait, which I wasn't fond of the one time I tried it, there really aren't any good alternatives.

 

anywhere from $20 - $27, i paid $26 for fou foune rose de gam was $21 nothing above $30

 

I don't believe that anyone's really getting anything incredible for new Framboos. And I say this as someone who has bottles and was paying attention to see if any of the offers were exciting. I didn't see anything jaw-dropping.

Also, the "hype" (that's not actually the word you want, but whatever) isn't anywhere near some of the older Cantillon beers, and it's not clear to me that it's significantly more "hyped" than Blabaer.

 

A few Framboos traders I was negotiating with didnt want obscenely rare things but were asking for some serious quantity. I wasnt too cool with it.

 

I can see that. I think that my main issue trading it is that it's so intimately tied into a really awesome trip that it holds a lot of value to me. In a way it's my main souvenir. So letting it go is difficult. I'd rather not shop it around if the price I'd need is well above its more objective evaluation, so I haven't. I don't know if the guys you talked to had the same mentality, but I hope so. (Although I can't really put into words why I find asking a lot for something for sentimental reasons more understandable than asking a lot for something out of greed, since the manifestation is so similar and the explanation of "I value this highly" is pretty much the same.)

 

They were international but still travelled. Much less than you had to. But with the amount of special releases they wanted, my travelling costs for all of them were probably equal to their trip to Denmark.

 

For someone who is in a state where Shelton is distributing, what are the average costs of a Cantillon Lambic/Gueuze? One can buy four singles from être gourmet at the moment for around $100 US including shipping. Are they significantly less than $25 a bottle?

 

750's of both of those were 17-20 around here back when they were on shelf. Haven't seen any for almost a year, and the last Cantillon I bought was St. Lam for 40. 3F also has disappeared, the Kriek the lone 3F available in 375 for 10. I am scratching that itch right now with Cuvee Rene' for 13, and it is quite delicious, but less so than either 3F or Cantillon for sure. Boon and Timmermans are always there but I don't care for them, something off with them. Even my recent fave, Tilquin, 21 for 750's, has disappeared around here.

 

I traded a Vic Francestein straight up for a Blabaer a few years back. I know of guy in London who just got every possible BA Alesmith offering from the last 3-4 years for one bottle of Framboos recently. He wasn't gouging either. He was offered that. That was one deal that I know went down but I have heard others getting similar offers. Which one has more hype?

I have never tried Framboos but I have heard that the Armand Tomme blend was the better beer at Copenhagen too. I did try the Armand Tomme blend and it was insanely good. Since you were in Copenhagen what are your thoughts?

 

You got shafted on the price then, the 2 750's of Cantillon I got last year were 13.99 a piece.

 

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Hard to compare a fruit beer to a gueuze, but I think that all things considered A&T was the better beer. Not by a lot, though. Also, really good odds you heard that from me, I've said it before.

 

He heard it from me. But to be fair I heard it from a bunch of my friends who were at CBF.

 

I think I just stepped into a time warp. I just stopped at a store in the Chicago suburbs on my way back to my office, and they had Cantillon Vigneronne on the shelf. I can't remember the last time I bought Cantillon off the shelf, but it certainly made for good day. Not to mention since Shelton Bros. changed distributors in the Chicago area the prices have all gone down $5-$10 on bottles depending on the variety.