Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux

Brewed by Brasserie Dupont
Style: Saison
Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium

(75cl bottle) Cloudy, pale golden colour with a massive, slightly off-white and persistent foamy head. Light-sweet, vinous-fruity (mandarins) nose, slightly wheaty with distinctive spicy and herbal hoppy notes. Light-bitter flavour, full bodied with an extremely well-matured and mellow carbonation. Yeasty, slightly wheaty and fruity taste with early arriving spicy herbal hops, lingering into the lasting moderately bitter finish. Superb brew (12.03.08).

A huge, rocky white head floats on a hazy straw body. The aroma is that of a soft malt with a wheaty tartness, yeast, coriander, citrus rinds, light floral scents, a variety of spices, and, as it warms, alcohol. The flavor is a masterful blending of all of the above along with a slight bitterness, all of which makes for a complex, enjoyable drink. Very nice.

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Easily the highlight of the tasting. Hazed golden color with a taller white foamy head. Aromas of dry malt, light clover honey, herbs drying in the wind and a hint of citrus. Sweet dough start gives way to citric and spice. Yeast presence with more pepper and herbs. A great example of the style.

Tap. Malty, hoppy, cheesy armoma. Hazy, yellow color, white head, nice lace. Start quite neutral but soon gets intens. Sweet to very sweet, maybe even too sweet. Fruity, honey, little cheesy, flavorfull and complex. Full and sticky. I think that this might be a here that could better be consumed from a bottle.

2002 750mL Bottle served at 10ºC in a saison flute.
Upon opening, the cork exploded off the bottle with tremendous force almost putting a hole in my ceiling...impressive. Pours a crisp beige sand color with large white champagne like head, lacing sticky as a Hawaiian gecko's feet. Aroma is RICH with ripe citrus fruit and a terrific tart barny background, best saison aroma I've had yet, world class. Flavor is complex sour with barely a hint of alcohol, this is has wonderful leather flavors and sweet complexities. Hints of unfermented candi sugar are there too, so this would age to a 5 I believe. Fruity carbonated finish with a slight tart alcohol feel to keep the background full of surprises. The aroma in this one is what goes the distance for me; I would give it a 12 if I could, so the bonus points spill over into the overall category. Saison's are my favorite type of beer and are very unique and hard to find, I feel this is the best beer I've had up to date. Cheers!<P>Post Drinking Comments: I noticed that when the yeast was included at the end of the bottle, the flavor profile was dramatically affected and the citrus flavors were now dominated by a toasty chewy funkiness. I was meticulous with keeping this bottle stored properly and pouring slowly and I was well rewarded; keep this in mind if you ever have this one.

Corked bottle. Poured hazy orange color with a large frothy white head that was lasting with excellent lacing. Heavy spicy fruit aroma. Medium to full body with a sticky texture. Medium blalanced flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration. Solid complex drinkable beer.

Draught @ Den Tatoverede Enke, Copenhagen. Pours a hazy golden colour with a longlasting white head. Sweet malty yeasty aroma with some soicy hints and hints of citrus. Sweet malty yeasty and spicy flavor. Slightly bitter malty and yeasty finish with some citrus hints.

Draught- Swan and Rushes Leicester. A hazy, pale orange coloured beer with some nice white head and lacing. The aroma is very lemony with some pepper and some funky farmyard stuff. The taste is also funky with some good lemony hops and again a peppery feel to it. A little medicinal touch. Very smooth and mellow and easy to drink. Does not have the character of some of the other Dupont Saisons, and suffers for that.