Fantôme de Noël

Mon dieu! Une biere tres magnifique! Warming, acidic, floral, complex, bla bla bla - I just got lost in it and started forgetting about words and descriptors and let my senses take over the euphoric state I was approaching. Thank you Fantome.

I found a Vintage 2003 bottle for only $9!!! HAhahahahah! And there is a store here in town that is charging $19.99 for the same shit! HAhahahahah

Ahhhhhh!!!!! I thought I had a bad bottle when I poured the beer because there was such a lackadaisical head, nearly nothing… but a small wispy tan froth. The body is a dark murky amber.
The aroma and flavor come across with a great depth of spices and sweet toffee and caramel malt. Tremendous suggestions of apricot, plums, pears, honeydew, raisons, and dried orange peel are most noteworthy. Danny must have emptied the spice rack into this batch! Fantastic notes of coriander up front, a hint of cinnamon, clove and cardamom are mid taste, and then I pull a wild notion of GINGER and Black Pepper Corn. In the center of my tongue I grab the slight warming spiciness of ginger… and I eat a lot of ginger! This is one Awesome combination of Holiday spice and sweet toasty malt, and the 10% abv is hidden like a ghost!!
What continually amazes me about this brewery is how F-ing innovative, yet completely natural Fantome’s beers are. They are extremely complex but always come across as an effortless act. I am always leveled by Fantomes Offerings…. And again, this is no exception!

Aroma of rich musky yeast like cave primoidia. A yeast and herbal quality with a light sweetness. Not much complexity and not what the price or reputation would imply.

Ruddy brown body with suspended sediment, medium off-white head. Flowery, toasty aroma with hard-to-discern spices. A bit fuller than other Fantomes I’ve sampled, fairly sweet and toasty and quite herbal with plenty of spices, flower petals, and a long herbal finish. Kind of like a peppery tea sweetened with dark candi sugar. Even with the heavier emphasis on malts, the classic Fantome herbal, spicy bouquet ends up dominating the beer. Something about this beer reminded me of cranberry sauce.

2004 Bottling, Sampled November 2004
This beer has an incredibly enticing aroma of slightly acidic apples and raisins as I pour this beer. It pours a semi-hazy rich amber color, and is topped by a full tan to light amber colored head. The aroma is quite fruity from a distance and as I go in for a closer smell the sharp acidic fruitiness becomes more apparent and is joined by notes of chocolate, and a very subtle spiciness that hints at cinnamon, clove, liquorish, ginger, vanilla. Basically this smells like a rich, fruity, subtle spice cake. The aroma is quite intriguing and is on par with the best from the Fantôme Brasserie.

The taste is soft and creamy up front, but finishes with a rich note of chocolate, which seems to be derived from roasted malts. As I let the flavors linger in my mouth, I get a definite dark malt finish that is reminiscent of a lightly roasted breakfast blend coffee. This beer is quite tasty, and I really like the abrupt transition between creamy soft and fruity upfront to the chocolately roasty finish.

I go in for another round of sniffing, and I start to pick up notes of fresh herbal fennel, a hint of vinegar (which seems to be only a suggestion from the spicy character here, as opposed to actual acetic acid), a finish that has a damp cellar-like character to it, and some definite notes of ginger aromatics. There is a certain, entirely obvious, yet not so much that I can pick it out, spice here in the nose that I should recognize, but just can’t quite put my finger on, what is it? Egad, the aroma of this beer is just intoxicating, the beer is at about 58*F (15*C) and is at the perfect temperature for smelling. Ok, it is now a 1/2 hour later, and I have had a revelation, I am pretty sure that this aroma is cardamom, it is in the taste as well.

The taste, while not quite as intoxicating as the aroma, is quite enticing and strikes a very good balance between soft notes and notes of more solid sharp character. The soft notes that I get consist of notes of apple, plum, tamarind, vanilla, raisin, and cinnamon. The sharp notes that I sense remind me of coffee, sharply acidic apples, a certain woodiness, a light herbal character, definitely a combination of light astringent notes, and that lingering chocolate note really hits my taste buds.

Dany has done a masterful job of pairing his house character with subtle spiciness and a hint of rich roast malt notes. This is my perfect ideal for a Christmas Saison. What a complete treat.

2003 vintage, Sampled November 2003
Rated 3.5/7/3/8/3/14

Dark brown color. Small white foamy head. Aroma is fruit, tart, sour, barnyard funk, must, raisins, plums etc. A medium bodied Belgian Strong Ale. Malts are fruity, plums, cherries, and raisins. Nice bright yeasts. Nice fruity sour tartness and barnyardness. Touches of chocolate and coffee. The flavors balance out and smoothes out somewhat as it warms. A funky weird beer, but what else would you expect from Fantome! Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and dry. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Brown color with a thin brown head. Aroma of spices and caramel. Flavor of caramel malt, spices and alcohol. Bitter finish. Light to medium body. I didn’t really know what to expect of a Christmas beer from Fantôme, maybe a Christmas Saison,(just kidding) but it really has all the qualities of a great Christmas beer.

Dark Burgundy. Bizarre. sweet bouquet of strawberries, dates, dark fruits (cherries and plums), chocolate, medicines, spices and bizarre Fantome yeast. Tastes begins with a variety of fruit and spice (cherries, prunes, red apples), earth, tree branches, vinegar and finishes with a sense of dry and bitter chocolate. Warming, full bodied and very different compared to other Fantomes but still phenomenal in nearly every aspect.