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You've got one thing right at least. It's semantics. Moreover, it's the word "lambics" where it derails, and having condoned that same expression in the Lambic guide for all beers of spontaneous fermentation from the Payottenland, I have only to blame myself. Not that I think everybody's read that book, but I have to assume my correspondent did.
"Lambic" is basic beer, made with spontaneous fermentation. The Frambozen which started this thread, is based UPON lambic, but it chafes my ears to hear it called lambic. You could call it Frambozenlambic (=raspberry lambic), with all rights.
In this instance, Lindemans lambic ranks amongst the best. It is certainly very traditional. It is a very malse lambic, meaning mild or mellow, and hence ideal for blending. They make f.i. a gueuze, supposedly the same as the Cuvée René which is very good, mellow without being sweet(ened).
But their fruitlambics, as in bottled form, are far from 100% traditional method. Raspberry juice, made from thickened syrup, filtering and pasteurising are the rule. And I even don't want to start on their infamous "Pêcheresse".
Parenthesis: no "super-sour" lambic is NOT more traditional. "Malse" gueuze, lambic are. But the less choice of lambic there is, the more difficult it is, even statistically, to find enough malse lambic for blending. Hence, filtering, sweetening, even with non-sugar additives (formerly saccharine, but that is forbidden these days). Lambic OUGHT to contain discernible lactic acid, but acetic ought to remain under the identification treshold.
Chapeau is not a brewer. It is the commercial series of the Brewery De Troch at Wambeek, (brewer by the name of Jos Raes). It is the worst commercial humbug one could imagine. Yet, as even in Belle-Vue Kriek L.A., there is an infinitesimal part of true traditional lambic, in the real sense of the word, in these "drinks". Though I must say that my most recent sampling of unblended lambic from De Troch, made raise two eyebrows to maximum height. I wonder what's happening. De Troch has also an unfiltered gueuze, which is merely OK, IMO. They used to have an absolutely fabulous gueuze and kriek, often seen in 37.5 cl corked bottles, but all samples I find these days are old.
The least traditional brewer is no doubt Belle-Vue out of the InBev stable. Yet, I can bear witness that they used to have to most unbelievable reserve of both lambics and real fruitlambics on the wood, for their blending purposes. It was the only brewer which could bear the financial loss, of leaving some lambics on the wood for 4 years, instead of the habitual 3 maximum, risking the spoil. But if it kept...
Joris