Cantillon Nuit Bruxelloise
Description
Cantillon Nuit Bruxelloise is a lambic aged on 300g/liter of Alicante Teinturier grapes from Zélige-Caravent in the Occitania region of the south of France, in the "Pic Saint-Loup" area.
History / Other Notes
Jean Van Roy visited Domaine Zélige-Caravent after seeing a story about the winery and realizing they were located close to his parents in law. He really enjoyed the tasting, and the biggest surprise was "Nuit d'Encre", a bottling made of 100% of Alicante Bouschet grapes (though on some vintages 20% of Mourvèdre can be part of it for balance) which is very unusual, he thought the expression was really out of the box and he immediately asked if they could provide him with the grape, which lead to the creation of Nuit Bruxelloise.
Usually the Alicante Bouschet grape (a crossing between the Grenache Noir and Petit Bouschet varietals) is mainly used in wine blends for color as it is very dark, and is mostly found in Spain and Portugal where most of the world production comes from, but also in the US as well as the south of France where the domain Zélige-Caravent is located - it is worth noticing though that in this country it cannot be used in any of the official "Protected Designation of Origin" certifications. It is very rarely used as a monoblend because of its intensity, indeed it has very strong tannins, often a high level of alcohol and can lack finesse. That besing said, a few producers see a lot of potential in it as long as it's harvested late enough and the right level of ripeness, displaying notes of chocolate, black currants, graphite, truffles, spices, ... these wines are usually meant for aging on a rather long term and shouldn't be drank too early.
It shows in the beer as the first batch bottled in 2015 really started to shine after a few years, displaying beautiful vinous notes of black currant and sour cherries, with upfront but pleasant tannins.
Bottle log
| Bottle date
(mm/dd/yyyy) |
Cork Date | Bottle Size | Label / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10/28/2015 | Season xx/xx | 750 mL | |
| 12/03/2019 | Season xx/xx | 750 mL | |
| 01/08/2021 | Season xx/xx | 750 mL | |
| 11/10/2022 | Season xx/xx | 750 mL | |
| 12/09/2024 | Season xx/xx | 750 mL |