Fantôme La Gourmande - Brasserie Fantôme

HiroProtagonist

Maryland

4.63/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

La Gourmande was served form a capped and corked 750ml green bottle that lacked the usual US English back label and government warning. In a Duvel tulip, the beer was a rich and hazy golden-orange-straw color, and was topped by a towering and hyperactive rocky white head that settled chunky and left chunky lacing. The nose was exploding with wonderful and challenging spring-like aromas: underlying lemon/lime acidity and beaming notes of crushed pepper, citrus zest, funky/musty dampness, leather, lemonbalm, rosemary, fresh herbs, and pilsner hops. On the palate, crisp and delicious peppery apricoty pale malts hit with a perfect quenching astringency, then opened up with lovely sage-like spice, cuban oregano, and notes of bitter orange-lime zest. It finished clean, citric, and bold...refreshing! The full and crisp yet smooth body and peppy carbonation were perfect for the flavors and character of the beer. As for drinkability...wow. This beer is amazing to drink, perfect. I could drink this all day, everyday. This is what saison is all about. Simply magnificent!

Big ol' thanks (once again) to skyhand for "Deliverating" this one to me!

Serving type: bottle

05-28-2004 03:42:37 | More by HiroProtagonist

TheLongBeachBum

California

4.33/5  rDev +4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Presentation: Classic 750ml green glass Fantôme bottle. The main obverse label has a brown picture on a white label, like the one shown in the BA Database. Labeled as ‘La Gourmande’, ‘Bière d’Epeautre de Hotton’. Listed as 7%. In classic Fantôme style, there is no freshness date, LOL, like Fantôme needs one!

Appearance: Pale orange gold with some peach hints. Slowly forming and building carbonation helps to produce a decent white head. A clinging, small bubbled, white head formation leaves little lace. Lots of streamers punctuate the clear skinless marmalade body and help to bolster the bone-white head. Excellent looks.

Nose: Oooh! Pure Fantôme! This is simply gorgeous. An amazing mix of lemon peel, fresh mint and zesty citrus, spicy hops, tripel-esque pilsner malts, black peppers and a touch of tropical fruits. Absolutely Incredible.

Taste: Sporadic uncontrolled farmyard yeasts mix well with the more restrained bitter hops and acidic stark citric qualities that give this Fantôme some Tripel qualities. Sharp spices and some black peppers mix with a lovely piercing lemon zestiness on the tongue long after the apricot swallow. Marmalade lingers on the cheeks.

Mouthfeel: Spritzy feel, nice smooth conditioning sits well in the mouth. Bitter finish with hints of fleshy peaches and moist apricots. Bold yet light – funky yet Fantôme! Fucking superb.

Drinkability: I easily demolished the 750ml without any trouble, hints of tart 2 year old lambics and some champagne Gueuze in this one. Drinks extremely well, even for a funky Saison. Gimme more.

Overall: I once tried this on draft, it was a big disappointment. Somehow, I think Fantôme has to be from the bottle for the imbiber to experience all of the nuances that Dany Prignon and his Farmhouse Brewery has to offer. This is no let down. Not the best beer from Soy-Erezée, but it is quite superb, and supremely Fantôme!

Dare I say that this is an Artisanale Fantôme Tripel with some Gueuze flair! Maybe I just did.

Serving type: bottle

05-24-2004 04:41:07 | More by TheLongBeachBum

cokes

Wisconsin

4.05/5  rDev -2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

Solid orange with golden traits. The head is relatively compact, and fades quickly, but bone-hued while it lasts.
Aromas of orange and lime and hay and mown grass with an oaky white vinous undercurrent.
Begins rather tart, but not searingly so. Lime juice and oak, with vague white wine hues. Parched apricots. Cilantro leafiness. Breadier as it sits, but never hugely. Granny Smith Cider. Gueuzey. Complexities drop out later, but it hardly matters. Ends dry, herbal and grassy, with loose mustiness. The tartness lingers for a while, then is partially masked by the ample yeast pour. Turns spicier with ramped-up, powdered cilantro notes, and earthier, herbal hues. However the lime and lemon drop connotations remain steadfast; they just lose some of their edge.
Light bodied with rushing CO2 upfront. Stays semi-perky throughout, but it seems to grow a bit stagnant (and quasi-heavy) by the end.
Fans of lambic will find some intrigue here. I did.
It's not one of Fantome's premier offerings, but there is a good deal of flair here.

Courtesy of Bighuge.

Serving type: bottle

04-26-2004 00:40:57 | More by cokes

Realale

Missouri

3.95/5  rDev -5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Lovely full gold. Large fluffy white head that settles to an incomplete cap, but erupts again with each pour.

Lots of bready malt, and a pleasant yeastiness dominate the nose. Touch of phenol and a bit of limey citrus.

Medium weight in the mouth where the copious malt combines seamlessly with the yeasty notes. Hint of hop flavor and bitterness comes out with food. Nice length. Tastes funkier, in a good way, when the sediment is swirled into the beer.

Great bottle-conditioned mouthfeel, with the sofness of the carbonation a real complement to the overall subtleness of this beer. Great to quaff in quantity, excellent with food, and worthy of contemplation on its own. Certainly Duvel-esque, but with a bit of Fantome funk. Nice beer.

Serving type: bottle

03-28-2004 18:56:32 | More by Realale

CharlesRiver

Connecticut

4.47/5  rDev +7.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Golden amber in color with a very small head that doesn't last at all. The smell is just like most Fantome beers. Fruity and yeasty with hints of sweet and sour coming through. I just love their beers! The taste is so crisp, clean, complex, sweet, sour, tart and very mysterious. Most Fantome beers that I have sampled are lower in carbonation, which is actually what I prefer. This one is no different. This beer also has some apple notes. Dry at the end with a little warming feeling.

Overall, I love it. Everything that I expected and more. My scores are not based on how this beer fits into a certain style. They are based on what I like and don't like.

Serving type: bottle

03-24-2004 23:07:46 | More by CharlesRiver

Boilermaker88

California

4.4/5  rDev +5.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Appearance: a cloudy amber color with just a modest white head. Left some sparse lace.
Nose: aromas of apricots, lemons, honey, and tea with some barnyard mustiness. Light floral notes also.
Taste: this brew had a pervasive flavor of slightly rotting apricots and peaches dipped in honey. Some funky shoe leather and yeasty malts mid-palate. Lemon juice-inspired sourness and a tea-like tannic flavor and acidity in the finish. The feel was light and dry.
Overall: I liked the way the flavors melded. They seemed to work well together and resulted in a highly drinkable brew. Seeing how much I love apricots, I guess I was destined to like this offering from Fantome.

Serving type: bottle

03-24-2004 17:26:20 | More by Boilermaker88

drewbage

California

4.22/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Sampled at the 2004 Pizza Port 12 Hours of Belgian Beer Party.

Beer arrives in the glass a rocky orange and yellow with a tall sticky head.

The aroma is enough to bowl a man off of his table, even with all the activity swirling around us, this aroma slinked out of the glass to come and pull a man into Proustian reflections of childhood and the warmth of honey and lemon gave to us in our moments of woeful health. Apricots and a Germanic grain round out the profile to make it seem like a lemon curd, apricot tart with honey drizzled over the fruit to complete the effect.

The flavor continues the honey tea aroma but this time the lemon is well in the forefront to the extent that nary another flavor can stand up 'cept some of the guar from the honey and some of the flowers.

Beer finally comes to a very dry finish with a final visit from a new player in the taste cast, chameomielle.

Very interesting beer. The two primary actors in this brew are so potent that if you don't like either, you're doomed on this quaff.

Oh and like most of the recent Fantome vintages, don't point the cork at anything you don't want to put a hole in.

Serving type: bottle

03-19-2004 21:37:59 | More by drewbage

Rastacouere

Quebec (Canada)

4.05/5  rDev -2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

Served in a trappist glass around 12 celsius: Very cloudy yellow body with orange, almost brown tones, like a dirty river's water, muddy. Fully diminishing white head unfortunately. Aroma is bold hay, moderately malty, rather sweet, lightly yeasty with notes of orange, dust and coriander. Sweet fruitiness like a passion juice, citric but also weizen-alike acidity. Notes of dust, citrus, cherries and blueberries. Once again, Fantome brings out a great beer which I definitely had to try once though I wouldn't seek it out again. The first of an incommensurably huge six-pack courtesy of Nexxus!

Serving type: bottle

02-01-2004 21:33:42 | More by Rastacouere

Bighuge

Minnesota

4.1/5  rDev -1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Dull copper appearance. Very thin head. The rimming left behind leaves sparse lace. This beer smells of lemon peel, must, yeast, vinegar, black pepper and dank cellars. The taste is citrusy. And acidic. Some tartness is observed. Lemon drop and misty sea water mix effectively. A little anise. Quite dry. Kind of lip smacking. Good. Mouthfeel is light on the carbonation and quite fluid. Nice brew.

Serving type: bottle

01-17-2004 04:45:35 | More by Bighuge

Joss

Germany

3.63/5  rDev -12.7%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Citrus, peaches and yeast notes for the nose.
Attractive cloudy orange and a creamy head for the eye.
Fruit (oranges prominent), a bit bubblegum (when the beer warms up) and spice for the palate.
Prickling dryish mouthfeel, light to medium body, slightly bready aftertaste.

Serving type: bottle

11-14-2003 21:39:40 | More by Joss

GreenCard

Oregon

4.25/5  rDev +2.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Auditory analysis: the 'pop' when I uncorked this bottle was so loud and unexpected that it quite startled me; for a second I thought I had it was a bottle of champagne I had grabbed!

Appearance: Beautious! Pale gold/straw color, thick and lustrous layer of cream-colored foam, tons of champagne-like bubbles, great head retention, slightly hazy, nice lace from the ever-present layer of fine-bead head; the only near-negative comment is that the sediment in the bottom of the bottle is VERY loose and it took a great deal of care to keep it in the bottle

Aroma: champagne fruitiness, sugary malt smell, a touch of earthy/musty character, yeast, caramel, cork, ethereal trace of spice

Flavor: semi-sweet malt component complicated by the rooty mustiness of the buckwheat; cork, yeast, some hop flavor, slight vinous tang; a pleasant closing bitterness which seems to stem from hops and perhaps bitter orange peel; dryish finish with a vegetal, bitter aftertaste

Mouthfeel: medium body, champagne-like carbonation (lots of gas in this baby!), slightly mineral feel, gentle belly-warmth

Overall Impression: I don't know if I truly detect any buckwheat, but that doesn't stop this from being one hell of a gem! There is an underlying earthiness that I attribute to the buckwheat, but it could easily come from Fantome's complex yeast strain. Great beer. Get it while you can because, from what I've been told, this was a one-time release.

By the way, the picture that you see for this beer is the very bottle that I reviewed. Not that it really matters.

Serving type: bottle

10-26-2003 15:16:47 | More by GreenCard

beerguy101

California

3.58/5  rDev -13.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Light gold color. Medium head. Aroma is malty and slightly citrus. A medium bodied beer. Malty, yeasty and slightly grainy. Some fruit flavors, peaches. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is slightly sweet. Not the typical Fantome label.

Serving type: bottle

08-13-2003 03:54:12 | More by beerguy101