Larry Edgerton

9.6

Heavenly. Warm brioche! We also enjoyed it at the kitchen table with Izzabette and Dominique on a Sunday morning in May 2014. — 9 years ago

Michelle Dahlstrom Murray

9.8

2012....heavenly! I could drink this every night. — 10 years ago

Stacy Woods

9.4

Heavenly! Brilliant, even concentration of garnet to red brick rim. Complex and intense aromatics red cherry, rose, lavender, cola, tar, tea, black pepper. Medium body, dry, tangy high acid, warming high alcohol 14.5% is well balanced and creates a smooth mouthfeel. Chalky astringency is is high but slow to arrive and well integrated and creates a harmonious structure. Black cherry, licorice, and a mouth filling rose perfume dominates the long, complex finish. Don't drink this youthful wine now! She will have a lot more finesse in 10+ years. Swoon — 10 years ago

Kathleen Benson

9.7

This was my last bottle and I was a little weepy eyed when I finished it. It was heavenly! — 11 years ago

Patrick Tse

9.7

This was heavenly! — 11 years ago

Carla Santos

Wine Education Manager Wine Story and Planet Grapes

9.7

Irresistible freshness, elegant fruit and heavenly finish. An excellent Second Wine from St. Julien, Bordeaux. At Wine Story. — 12 years ago

Bas Veerkamp

9.3

Heavenly Rosé — 12 years ago

Kyna Love

9.8

Heavenly. Big dark fruits with a silky finish — 10 years ago

Barb Anderson

9.0

A fantastic red blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, Malbec, Cab Franc & Petit Verdot. Smooth with heavenly aromas. — 10 years ago

with Beckie, Amanda and 1 other

Claire Currie

9.0

Heavenly. Had a really interesting almost licorice flavor. — 11 years ago

Veronica Castro

8.9

Devil wine is heavenly good. Pomegranate, anise, red crunchy fruits. — 11 years ago

Paloma Giangrande

9.2

Fresh and fruity with a hint of salt. Heavenly. — 11 years ago

Jordan Mackay

Wine Editor San Francisco Magazine

9.6

Rouget. From the master. Still alive and heavenly. — 11 years ago

Eric Red

9.8

Awesome Chardonnay from Michael David. Had a few times, always great. — 12 years ago

Colleen Ryan

9.0

Pepper + blackberry + vanilla is a heavenly combo — 10 years ago

Georgios Georgiou

9.9

Oh my...heavenly all of the way around. — 10 years ago

Matthew Walsh

9.4

Stunning. Absolutely heavenly Chablis with all the typicity you'll ever need, rich yet invigorating, super dry yet at the same time satisfyingly fat - all overladen with that flat steely wet stone 'chablisness'. — 10 years ago

Marcella Newhouse

Writer/Educator enotecaMarcella

9.7

#duplessis #chablis 2010. Heavenly balance. Fresh chalky bright layered. Love it! — 11 years ago

Jonathan Self

10

Soo amazing. Smooth and juicy and vibrant with a light acidic playful Finnish. Delicately tart cherries and lemon zest. A mouthful of overripe warm stone fruit. Heavenly. — 11 years ago

Joe Carroll

Owner/Wine Director Spuyten Duyvil, Fette Sau, St. Anselm & Gotham Artisanal Provisions

9.5

Jean Van Roy's amazing story of Zwanze 2013. When we started renovation works in the cellars of the brewery two years ago, much to our surprise we came upon the remains of some very old walls. In agreement with the medievalists of the city of Brussels, the works were stopped in order to allow archaeological excavations to take place.

Shortly thereafter we were astonished to find out that Cantillon brewery had in fact been built on the ruins of the very ancient Abbey of Cureghem! According to the medievalists, this religious community was well-known during the middle ages for its fowl fed on draff and, more specifically, for its dish of stuffed Cureghem capon, which was served with a beer brewed at the abbey and apparently drew pilgrims from all over Europe.

Yet it was truly a heavenly surprise when the excavations uncovered the cell of the abbot, Father Faro. In the small room the archaeologists found quite a few old reference books, one of which contained the original recipes for the beers brewed at the abbey several hundred years ago. We didn’t hesitate for a second and decided on the spot to recreate one of these mythical beers.

This beer, which will be our Zwanze for 2013, therefore bears the name of its illustrious place of origin, Abbaye de Cureghem (Cureghem Abbey). Cureghem was formerly a village established many centuries ago on the banks of the Senne, the river running through present-day Brussels. The area was very heavily industrialised during the 19th century and, among other things, became home to many breweries. Today, it is part of the municipality of Anderlecht.

Since beers commonly referred to as “abbey beers” are not, or not any longer, products of spontaneous fermentation, we decided to brew a top fermentation beer, from a technical point of view in any case. The yeasts were selected in collaboration with Institut Meurice, a post-secondary college in Brussels specialising in biotechnology. Brewed in March 2012, our “Cureghem” beer fermented four weeks in stainless steel tanks before being blended with 10% lambic and pumped into 400-litre barrels of various origins. After maturing for six months, the beers were blended and put into casks or bottles to undergo re-fermentation and reach 7.2% ABV (Alcohol by Volume).

Inevitably, a top fermentation beer brewed in a spontaneous fermentation environment will be affected by the wild yeasts in the air, and this is certainly what happened in our case. For our Cureghem, the cultured yeasts were clearly the main factor behind primary fermentation and I think that the wild yeasts in the beer will instead play an increasingly important role as the product ages. However, despite the addition of the lambic to give it a little “extra something” in terms of character and ageing characteristics, this Zwanze cannot in any case be considered a spontaneous fermentation beer.

The long fermentation period coupled with the presence of wild yeasts lends this beer a solid character with a dry finish that lingers on the palate, while the combined use of fresh and aged hops yields both freshness and bitterness. Moreover, the different malts used give this year’s Zwanze a coppery colour along with a touch of caramel and candied fruit that provide body. Clearly, this is not your standard “abbey” beer but, perhaps, it is representative of what these beers were one or two hundred years ago — 12 years ago