Fantôme Blanche

Bouteille verte de 750 ml obtenue via Importations Privées Bièropholie. Arôme: Odeur de zeste d’orange et de blé. Apparence: La couleur est orangée voilée avec une forte densité de bulle. Présence d’un énorme col mousseux et d’une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût de citron et de coriandre avec une pointe de pomme. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture minérale. Forte effervescence en bouche. Citron en arrière goût. (Rating #1718)

Cloudy honey gold hue, with a thick frothy white head, leaving laces, yeasty, funky, faint citrusy nose, with some spicy ripe apples, some earthy malts, a hint of mustiness, with a subtle coriander aroma follows through on a medium-bodied palate with a yeasty, mild lemony, citrusy character, with a funky, musty accent, some light coriander, nutmeg spiciness, with a kind of floral cloverleaf leafiness, leading towards a fruity acidic, hop bitterness finish. Not your standard bière blanche!

In short: A funky Saison cleverly disguised and a Witbier. Different and interesting.
How: Bottle 750ml, relatively fresh (about 2 months old).
The look: Cloudy dark golden body with a large off-white head with medium retention
In long: The nose is funky, very funky, I’m talking lambic-funky. That funkiness is joined by the smell of a freshly backed lemon pie. Very nice aroma. Taste is not up to the aroma. Overall impression of a vanilla ice-cream flavoured Saison. A bit caramelized and buttery. Kind of lactic and that vanilla ice-cream flavour became more and more apparent as the beer warmed up. Surprisingly dry with medium acidity. Carbonation is sparse, too sparse. Started out great but I found a 750ml a bit too much. Of course this is Fantôme so your bottle and my next bottle will something totally different. Good beer, different, unusual, almost bizarre. In the world of Witbier this one stands out like a black man on a Mississippi executive golf course.

Sampled March 2007
This beer has quite a bit of chill haze to it; the beer went into the freezer brilliantly clear, but now sits in my glass a fully hazy, orangish amber color. It is topped by an initially four-finger thick, pale off white colored head. The aroma is enticingly spicy with notes of orange, earthy spices and some dusty malt notes. There is a touch of herbal character as well as some other spice notes that are quite evident, but that I can’t quite pinpoint well enough to tell what they are. Hints of dusty pepper, touches of ginger, and a spicy herbaceous character. There seems to be a touch of funk here as well, this smells in some way like a Lambic, though it could just be the spicing choice and yeast character (a taste will settle that though). The aroma is quite enticing, and I could spend quite some time just smelling this aromatic brew.

Quite light on the palate, in fact it is very light and easy drinking; eminently thirst quenching even. Somehow soft and creamy, sort of tastes like a dry orange cream soda. Lightly tart, though not overly so and it finishes with a spicy, peppery bite that has hints of ginger and arugula. This beer is really quite dry, I am not sure if there is even a hint of malt sweetness left. The peppery finish is quite interesting, it really lingers on after a sip and even tickle the throat with a hint of cayenne-like heat. There is some ingredient here that is really interesting, I can’t quite figure it out. It is almost a savory flavor / quality (perhaps it is savory, though in this case the herb not the adjective I meant in the first place). Going back to the finish, perhaps it is more herbaceous than peppery (it is just a hint after all), or more correctly it seems to be some type of green herbal note that has a peppery character to it (something like arugula that I mentioned previously). This beer is also quite earthy at times, I don’t mean some generic much, but instead a rich, nutrient rich loam that is peppered with mulched herbs.

Ok, this beer is just packed with complexity and it is only 4% alcohol. Plus the really light, quaffing character of this brew is just wonderful. I love it when brewers make beers with this depth of interesting flavors at relatively low alcohol levels. The spicing here is perfect too, whatever Dany did, this beer has a ton of spicy character that lies just below being recognizable. If it was not for the apparent, aromatic orange character, I would classify this more as a Saison (though historically Wits, and Saisons where really quite similar).

Hazy light orange/golden pour, pretty underlying pink hues. Bristling, half fizzy/half creamy white head, extremely well retained. Lacing is copious and scattered oddly about. Aroma is sweet yeast, toasted grains in moderation, barnyard smoothed over with a banana cream twist, lemon zest and sweetened lemon juice, cotton candy, orange and the slightest white pepper nuance. Flavor is semi-sweet with accentuation of the lemon and yeast notes. Moderate bitterness makes the mouthfeel lively, additions of pine and sourness make it moreso. Palate is light to medium bodied, very effervescent and moderately acidic. Finishes sharply with lingering sweetness and yeast particulates dancing across the tongue. Fantome rocks. This is the only witbier I could presumably drink all day. The Fantome never grows tiresome. In fact, Fantome only becomes more interesting with every glass that empties, with every bottle opened. Like no other brewery.