Nèfle (2013) | Brasserie Cantillon
ABV: 5.0%
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Out of Production
Description: "In 2013, I spoke with a friend, a vegetable supplier for a michelin restaurant about using another fruit in the lambic and he told me about the nèfle. I asked Jean [van Roy] if we could try and he agreed to use one barrel. We ordered 92kg of fresh organic nèfles from Spain. The fruits were good and Jean suggested to remove half the pits, as he does for fou foune. I think that we let the fruit age 6 weeks and when tasting the beer, were disappointed; all the fruity flavor was gone and only the pit stayed. I said we should name the beer N like noyau (pit/stone in english). Like natural wine, the taste is evolving, sometimes it tastes bad a few months or a few years and gets better. But I have to admit that when I brought the 240 bottles to the cellar, I hoped to use them one day for the kitchen... In 2018 I was digging in the cellar, tasting some of the bottles to check their condition for Quintessence: LPK '08 was finally where I expected it, Zwanze '09 was heavily unbalanced, best pick was a Grand Cru '08, and without conviction I told Mat, my bar manager, and Bertrand, one of my bartenders, "you are gonna drink something very rare and probably not good." I took the decanter, poured the bottle and we tasted the Nèfle and it was surprisely good, weird balance but a clear fruit, and a very fun taste structure. We agreed with the staff to put it on the menu for Quintessence in 2018. Nèfle has no label because we never expected to sell it after the first tasting." -Jean Moeder
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Out of Production
Description: "In 2013, I spoke with a friend, a vegetable supplier for a michelin restaurant about using another fruit in the lambic and he told me about the nèfle. I asked Jean [van Roy] if we could try and he agreed to use one barrel. We ordered 92kg of fresh organic nèfles from Spain. The fruits were good and Jean suggested to remove half the pits, as he does for fou foune. I think that we let the fruit age 6 weeks and when tasting the beer, were disappointed; all the fruity flavor was gone and only the pit stayed. I said we should name the beer N like noyau (pit/stone in english). Like natural wine, the taste is evolving, sometimes it tastes bad a few months or a few years and gets better. But I have to admit that when I brought the 240 bottles to the cellar, I hoped to use them one day for the kitchen... In 2018 I was digging in the cellar, tasting some of the bottles to check their condition for Quintessence: LPK '08 was finally where I expected it, Zwanze '09 was heavily unbalanced, best pick was a Grand Cru '08, and without conviction I told Mat, my bar manager, and Bertrand, one of my bartenders, "you are gonna drink something very rare and probably not good." I took the decanter, poured the bottle and we tasted the Nèfle and it was surprisely good, weird balance but a clear fruit, and a very fun taste structure. We agreed with the staff to put it on the menu for Quintessence in 2018. Nèfle has no label because we never expected to sell it after the first tasting." -Jean Moeder
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