Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux

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

Matta is such a stellar individual Clear liquid gold wearing a foamy, frothy, rocky gigantic-sized white head. Very carbonated body. Gotta love such a complex aroma that never hinted at being not as great as expected by me (who still recently fell under the charm of their Dupont Forêt). Ultra farmy, dry and yeasty, very yeasty obviously like all other Dupont. Lovely barny and spicy hints. How can you not love a fine Saison. Bone-dry (made me think of chalk at times) with awesome white wine aspects. Deep spice profile includes coriander, basil, pepper, thyme, mint, sage and just various other herbs. The first sip proposes a malty attack with lots of dry hay, some apple and so much yeast. Finish is dry with a grassy hop bitterness, but remains restrained and balanced. Aftertaste comes back to haunt me with suggestions of dust and spices and that scores big points with me. So herbal, so intense and no alcohol to speak of although there's a charming warming effect. Body is medium, quite carbonated, mouth-cleaning for sure and lightly tart at times. Marvellous Marvel. I'm truly impressed and in great thirst of Saison for the rest of my days. Help me!

75cl bottle from Beers of Europe. Golden. Looks and smells like a particularly good tripel, with that Dupont funky yeast aroma. Grapefruit, pepper and coriander on the nose also. Very smooth mouthfeel with good dry bitter finish. A cracker.

Exquisite Savoir-Faire! Hazy golden in color with a thick creamy head that last forever. The nose is bready, like sourdough (this is the yeast) and somewhat like pastry or Marzipan. Highly carbonated. Medium to full body, crisp and clean, it goes down amazingly well despite 9,5%. A pure beauty of a beer.

Draft: at Brouwers. Dec 30 ’06

Hazy straw amber with a modest white head and lovely lacing. This beer has a splendid aroma of lemon, barnyard dust, and a hint of vinegarly lambic. The flavor is stunning: lemon and lovely - nay, perfect - bitter hops, more barnyard, a hint of sunflower seed, and warm sweet malts through the middle. The mouthfeel is full and rich without either the heat or the thickness one might attribute to a 9.5% beer; as a result, this one is packed beyond compare with flavor but remains refreshing nonetheless and despite its high alcohol content.

After 600+ ratings, this is the best beer I’ve ever tasted. My new top-rated beer by two points.

Revisit on tap, Feb 18 ’07.

Indeed, after my encounter with the bottled version (described below) I began to wonder if the rating above resulted from one of those fortuitious moments where the beer and the mood and palate and the setting all align in perfect synchrony to raise a very good beer to beyond excellent in the moment.

So the next day, I tried this again on tap, again at Brouwers. The previous 4.7 was no fluke; that beyond-perfect mouthfeel was back, the beer was everything I had experienced the first time, and it was fully deserving of its position alone at the top of my list.

Bottle: 750 ml, 2006 bottling tasted Feb 17 ’07.

From the bottle, this is a somewhat different beer. It’s very good, still, but it doesn’t compare with the mind-blowingly good beer that I tasted on tap. Much of the loss is in the mouthfeel. The bottled version features a coarser head; it is harsher and lacks the smooth creamy fullness of the tap, substituting instead a more oily mouthfeel and more overt 9.5% alcohol. I probably would have rated this about a 4.2 if I was tasting it for the first time. The take-home lesson is that if you haven’t had this one on tap, you haven’t had the full experience of what it can be.

Murky dirty blonde pour from 375ml bottle. Small, lasting white foamy head. Aroma is grassy hops, wheat and grass with some alcohol. Taste is bitter hops, grass, coriander, slightly sour, warming alcohol and dry finish. Med carbonation and thick mouthfeel. Pretty damn good, even better second time round.

Pours hazy yellow, with a lot of carbonation. Smells of yeast, which is visible in the glass. Tastes of bread and fruit. Something else in there though that makes this beer stand out. It’s smooth, no tart. Don’t know what it is, but I’m sure I’ll try it again.

Bottle, Belgian Belly, Chorlton. This is a belting Belgian straight out of the top drawer. Just incredibly moreish. Smelled and tasted gorgeous.Lemony hops, vanilla malt . Beautifully balanced hop, jostled with a complex fruity spiciness. Ever so slightly boozy, but so what? A lovely beer, hats off to y’all

pours a nice orange straw that reminds me of the midwest in the fall with a cloudy thick white head light bosied with a nice funky citrus aroma A world class saison Wonderfull!!!!!!