Boon Oude Geuze Mariage Parfait
I made the mistake of drinking this while eating bittersweet chocolate chip cookies. Not a good combination. However, on its own, this geuze is great.
Admittedly, geuze is just not a style I like. However, I’m trying to evaluate the beer on its own merits, rather than my own prejudices here. For those who know nothing about geuze, here’s a brief introduction.
Geuze is a style of lambic, but unlike most other lambics, it’s not fruity and sweet. Instead, its taste is most comparable to champagne. Geuze is made by mixing old and new lambics together and then by producing a secondary fermentation in the bottle (just like champagne). For more information, check out this Wikipedia article.
Anyway, onto the review of Bourwerij Boon’s Oude Geuze Mariage Parfait. This Belgian lambic comes in a green bottle, and if you were illiterate, you’d probably think it was champagne. The bottle is thick and has a cork and wire. When opening it, take the same precautions as with champagne to make sure you don’t poke someone’s eye out. The beer pours out a dark golden color and creates a light head, which dissipates within a few minutes.
The beer smells a little spicy and tastes tart and sour. It’s not overly tart and sour, though, like say, a sour ale, so it’s palatable to me. The beer is dry and reminiscent of dry vermouth or champagne. It kind of reminds me of lemons, though more like bad lemons. The finish leaves behind a sour, tart taste much like the beer and doesn’t disappear for a long time.
My recommendation is to take this to your next New Year’s Eve party and see if anyone notices that it’s not champagne. I bet they won’t! It’s an unique beer, which ought to gain in popularity in the USA in the near future. I believe this is one of the more common geuzes out there, too, so you’ll likely be able to find it at package stores that carry wide varieties of craft and import beers.
Overall, it’s a good beer, and certainly a good geuze. However, it’s definitely not my style. I prefer the fruitier lambics instead.
It scores an 88 at BeerAdvocate.
