Cantillon Sophia Lambic

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Description

Cantillon Sophia Lambic is a lambic macerated with the pomace of Greco di Tufo grapes which had previously been aged in amphorae coming from Cantina Giardino in Italy. 500 kg of pomace are added to 2000 L of lambic, thus giving a ratio of about 25 g/L which seems low compared to the usual 300 g/L of fresh grapes used by Cantillon, but pomace is only the dry matter of the grapes and is therefore much more concentrated. It is listed as 6.5% ABV and is bottled in 750 mL format.

History / Other Notes

Early bottlings and experiments with Cantina Giardino's Greco di Tufo grape pomace were often labeled simply as "Giardino", "Gueuze Giardino" or "Cantina Giardino" and labeled with the classic yellow Cantillon label. These bottles were mostly handbottled at the brewery and sent out for serving at festivals in Italy before officially being christened Sophia lambic and before being given a proper label.

In April of 2018, Cantillon noted the following for the first "official" batch: "The Greco di Tufo we received comes from a six-month long pellicular maceration (the skin of the grapes stays in contact with the liquid rather than being removed) in an amphora. The grapes are then pressed to fully extract their liquid - and we are lucky enough to receive the dry residue, which has now been added to barrels and topped with a blend of 2 and 3-year-old lambics here at the brewery. We’ve called the beer Sophia Lambic to pay homage to the wine originally produced by our friends."

It is worth noting that since the maceration time at Cantina Giardino is always different depending of the evolution of the wine must, it also means that the profile of the pomace sent to the brewery can be different because of a different extraction level, which leads to different maceration lenghts at Cantillon as well, in order to maintain a level of consistancy on the overall profile of the different batches. It also means that the brewery gets the grape pomace at different moments in time for each batch, which explains why this beer can be bottled many months apart on different years.

Bottle Log

Bottle date (mm/dd/yyyy)	Cork Date	Bottle Size	Label / Notes	Photo
xx/xx/xxxx	xx	750 mL	early bottles that would become batch 1, hand bottled for festivals mostly saying "Cantina Giardino" with yellow label	N/A
05/11/2018	Season 17/18	750 mL	Batch 1, label illustration by AMMO, no rear label. Some bottles may be labeled with yellow label.	N/A
06/21/2019	Season 18/19	750 mL	Batch 2, label illustration by AMMO, sold by Cantina Giardino
12/03/2020	Season 19/20	750 mL	Batch 3, label illustration by AMMO, sold by Cantina Giardino. 2019 harvest of grapes, but arrived late at Cantillon hence the later bottling date.	N/A
11/21/2022	Season 22/23	750 mL	Batch 4, label illustration by AMMO, sold by Cantina Giardino
12/04/2023	Season 23/24	750 mL	Batch 5, label illustration by AMMO , sold by Cantina Giardino

Label

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  Sophia Lambic, original label
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  Sophia Lambic, official label

Photos

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