Drie Fonteinen · Beersel, Belgium
Oude Kriek
Blend 83 & 118 Palate Comparison · Tasted May 5, 2026
Blend 83 & 118 Palate Comparison · Tasted May 5, 2026
17|18 · Blend 83
375 ml · Bottled Oct 10, 2018
Lueken Wine & Spirits
4 barrels · 6 brews
5-month maceration
Regular sour cherry
Lueken Wine & Spirits
4 barrels · 6 brews
5-month maceration
Regular sour cherry
21|22 · Blend 118
375 ml · Bottled Sep 22, 2022
Total Wine
4 barrels · 6 brews
28-month weighted · 365 g/L fruit
Regular sour cherry
Total Wine
4 barrels · 6 brews
28-month weighted · 365 g/L fruit
Regular sour cherry
Sight
21|22 · Blend 118
Deep hazy garnet, pink collar, fine carbonation rising in slow threads.
17|18 · Blend 83
Deep burnished garnet, dense and settled — a glass that has made up its mind.
Smell
21|22 · Blend 118
Dried cherry, almond, brett leather and hay, old lambic earth — marzipan arriving early, before the glass has settled.
17|18 · Blend 83
Cherry and dark fruit, brett fully woven in — nothing announcing itself separately, everything already one thing.
Taste
21|22 · Blend 118
Fresh cherry first, then wine-like stone fruit, marzipan threading through — leading with acidity, still unfolding.
17|18 · Blend 83
Cherry pit depth, marzipan, firm and unified — the same axis, now resolved into a single unhurried statement.
Mouthfeel
21|22 · Blend 118
Bright acidity, brett earthiness, carbonation still active — a texture with places left to go.
17|18 · Blend 83
Fine unified carbonation, firm and balanced acidity, a robust tannic backbone — five months of whole cherry skin maceration at its most expressive.
Finish
21|22 · Blend 118
Long, dry, gently tannic — the finish of a kriek still opening up, still deciding what it will become.
17|18 · Blend 83
Cherry fades to a hint of chocolate, then cherry returns — long, dry, lingering. That mid-passage chocolate before the fruit closes is the hallmark of kriek that has fully arrived.
Both bottles reveal the same wild, untamed soul — one still reaching toward itself, one already complete. The 21|22 is vibrant and unfolding; the 17|18 has settled into full integration. Together they trace the arc of what patience asks of lambic, and what lambic gives back.