Hark, These Heralded Ales To Drink

A Saison Brilliant and Sour: Fantome Noel (Vintage 2008)
Sampled: Dec. 6, 2010
Damn, this beer has a fragrant nose. Its all dark malts, leading with toffee and molasses, and chased with magnificent effervescence. Fantome is the Belgian innovator, challenging the boundaries of saison from the Ardennes forest.
The body possesses elements of a Belgian Dubbel or bruin, but Fantome goes strictly farmhouse for Christmastime. Just when it threatens to turn heavy, the spices intervene and let it conclude with a lively finish. Traces of cider also appear. The finish also includes darker flavors that manage not to overwhelm the palette.

I like a brewer that turns its slate of ales into a moving target. Fantome’s embrace of the saison concept gives it space to experiment under one banner. Instead of a normal Noel spice contingent, a distinct vein of orange dominates the back palette. It almost has a tannin-like dryness, bursting forth with a tart berry complexion, with blueberry challenging the orange for top billing. It’s unlike anything I’ve tasted in a Christmas ale. They don’t simply go with spices atop their normal offering.

Then the orange sharply turns sour. What shocks me more is the rapid development, as those fruit tones go decidedly sour. It doesn’t quite pucker the lips, but only the dullest taste buds would fail to see the sour. The flavor might not be intentional, but my delight in the Belgian sour’s extreme I never expected Fantome Noel to bend and twist in such exhilarating ways, but sours makes itself an asset here. Almost too much to handle in one ale, Fantome Noel is a pleasure for seasoned palettes, unwrapping new flavors in every pass.

Rue the Day You Skip This Saison: The Bruery Saison Rue
Sampled: Dec. 19, 2010
Rye malt meets brettanomyces sounds like heaven to lovers of bone-dry beer. The Buery had the nerve to pair rye with the wild yeast in its Saison Rue. Beneath its creamy head lies a deep bouquet of esters. This must be an older bottle, since the hoppiness described on the bottle never appears. Burnt orange envelopes the other tones and spices which threaten to rise. Citrus balanced with scents of dates and similar fruits emerge from the billowing bubbles.

Nashville’s Yazoo Brewery produces a rye saison, a lemony brew which couldn’t taste more foreign . The only lemon here emerges on the finish, a bright burst as the slightly sour tones fade away. A tiny dose of fine sediment lined the glass bottom; if you don’t look for it, you might miss it altogether. The ultra-dry orange coats the palette in an inoffensive manner. For it all the dry flavors, Saison Rue is a complex, nuanced affair.