NYC Tastes

It's New Brew Friday and today we're coming from the wonderful Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia for this extra special bottle Cantillon 20 Ans d'Amite. 20 Ans d'Amite was created by Jean Van Roy of Cantillon to celebrate both the 20th anniversary of Monk's Cafe and the 20 years he has been friends with the owner Tom Peters.  This beautiful lambic is a blend of Cantillon Nath and Lou Pepe Framboise with Nath being the majority at 70%.  It's light and fruity with delicate flavors of rhubarb, vanilla, raspberry and funk with a refreshing finish.   This was a delightful bottle to both drink and to purchase, as the label is just perfect for the occasion.  This bottle is only available for on-site consumption at Monks Cafe in Philadelphia. We were lucky enough to drink it both on draft and in the bottle at the Monks/ Sierrea Nevada Camp Fire Relief charity event last Saturday.  An incredible beverage for an incredible cause.  Cheers!  Monks Ca...

Day 3 in Brussels we woke up bright and early for a trip to my favorite place in the entire world, 3 Fonteinen's Lambik-O-droom.   This beautiful brewery located in the town of Beersel creates the most exceptional gueze in all of Brussels (in my humble opinion). We arrived right at 10:30 AM for the Saturday morning tour which takes guests through the history of the brewery, barrel room and bottling facilities. Since I had already been to Lambic-O-droom before, I hung out in the tasting room while my friends explored, and enjoyed a solitary bottle of Oude Geuze Vintage 2012, one of my favorite geuze's of all time. Followed by an Oude Geuze Vintage 2008 and 3 Fonteinen's incredible geuze cheese paired with mustard and apricot preserves.  I was really hoping to bring some of this fabulous cheese back to NYC, but it was already sold out by mid-day.  We spent the rest of the afternoon making our way through the extensive bottle list, sharin...

It's New Brew Friday and time to crack open something wonderful, my favorite style of beer a delicious gueuze. Mr. T and I bought this bottle in Brussels back in February at  De Heeren Van Liedekercke .  It was brewed by Brouwerij Lindemans, a blend of one and two year old Lindemans lambic with a two year old Girardin lambic, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of De Heeren restaurant. Opening this beer was a bit frightening.  As I cracked the cap the cork shot straight up and pushed itself over halfway out before I was able to stop it.  I held it for a minute slowly letting the cork rise and thankfully the bottle didn't gush; just a puff of smoke and everything settled. The aroma of this beer was big on barnyard funk; lots of hay, sour lemon and green apple.  The flavor was full on funkiness; tons of brett, wet hay, a bit of sour cherry with a tart acidic finish.  It was a great celebratory beer and the perfect start to the weekend. Cheers! Lin...

After lambick-O-droom we hopped back on the train to Brussels and headed back to Cantillon brewery for one last time.  There we met up with a few more New York friends (we NYers like our lambic) and actually had about 3 hours to relax and share the entire list of bottles together. I was more than happy to have that Carignan and 2007 Cantillon Gueuze again... ...not to mention the gorgeous Cabernet franc driven Saint Lamnivus and possibly my favorite Cantillon in the world Lou Pepe Kriek.   We picked up some more bottles to go and stopped at our place to drop them off, pausing for a moment in our small but gorgeous courtyard for a glass of Tilquin Mure. Then it was back to Nuetnigenough for dinner and this rich, hearty steak doused in a thick Cuvee Renee sauce.  I was so sick earlier in the week I could barely look at Mr. T as he devoured this dish so it was incredibly satisfying to enjoy myself in all its glory. Nuetnigenough...