Southampton Cuvee des Fleurs

Bottle: Pours cloudy orange with a nice amount of "floaties," very well carbonated with an almost pure white head. Aromas of herb gardens, floral greenhouses, malts, tangerines and sugar. Flavor was sweet and bitter, candy hints. Very light in the mouth, with tanginess and carbonation tickling all areas of the mouth.

Tap @ Blind Tiger, NYC. It pours a cloudy golden color with a slightly off-white head that is medium height. Aroma is largely floral with earthy and spicy notes thrown in. The taste is dominated by the lavender but balanced by more subtle flavors and the bitterness of the hops. The beer becomes slightly more bitter as it ends, but overall this is an absolutely wonderful beer. I could drink this all day, every day.

Beer 2001, shared with Capflu, tiggmtl, Rastacouere, Radiomgb, beerhugger, and DumDum in Ottawa. 750 ml bottle. Luminous orange-amber, nearly opaque, with a fair bit o’ head. Fresh flowers, delicate nutmeg, cardamom and cinnamon, ginger and vanilla, are masterfully blended into an intoxicating, perfumy monstrous nose. Imbibing, an immensely sharp, sweet and sour apple and honey character wraps around and transforms the tongue. Odd eddies of more pungent herbs (onion? pepper?) seem to whisper upward, through the full, living body. A masterpiece, a Space Odyssey indeed.

Celebration November 2004 at CapFlu’s place. 2001 bottle. Orange-brown in colour. Aroma was slightly sour, floral, herbal with some peppery spiciness. Flavour was very rich, beautiful sweetness and an even better sourness, floral, fruity (apples, oranges, lemons), some spices. Finishes with more spices and a wonderful sour bitterness. Thanks for bring this amazing beer tiggmtl.

2005 bottle vintage, Sampled January 2006
This is an absolutely ridiculously carbonated beer. I poured three tulip glasses of beer full to the brim and I was only able to pour about a 1/3rd of the bottle. The little tiny bit of beer at the bottom of my tulip is brilliantly clear, and an orangish-copper color. The head, as expected is voluminous, and slowly recedes in a frothy, collapsed rocky surface. The aroma is quite intriguing. It is much more noticeably than I was expecting; it is immediately noticeable as I am pouring the beer. It smells quite sweet and honey-like, but definitely a floral honey. As I go in for a deeper draught of the aroma, I get a slight astringent note that one would typically associate with wild flowers, but is also quite a typical characteristic of Belgian yeast. The aroma has notes that remind me of all sorts of things; I get notes of sweet-ginger, pepper, a spicy note that is similar to the fruity spicy note in a Habanero chile. Holy mackerel, the aroma is just absolutely fantastic, I can’t even describe everything that is going on, it is just awesome and needs to be experienced. I suppose I should get around to taking a sip of this heavenly aromatic brew.

The taste is quite sweet up front, in fact it is also devoid of carbonation; it was so explosively carbonated at first that almost all of the carbonation has disappeared. The description of honey is definitely an apt one for the taste as well. This sweetness is balanced by an astringent, sharp, bitter, almost weedy note that is much more appealing than I have described. The note definitely takes the place of hop-bitterness, but is quite a bit different. The astringent, bitter note lingers for quite some time in the mouth after the beer is gone. This in many ways reminds me of a Chinese dessert consisting of an unrefined-sugar sweetened, ginger infused water that is used to flavor a super soft, silken tofu; it is quite good. There is something of a green vegetal character here; almost like a red/yellow bell pepper, but better.

I am really enjoying this beer. If I had to complain I would say that this could really use some carbonation to it; the initial over-carbonation robbed this beer of any residual carbonation. Perhaps my next pour will have a bit more CO2. Ah yes, my second pour from the bottle is quite well carbonated, in fact almost a bit overly so. This high level of carbonation actually cuts the sweetness a bit, which is actually good. This beer is just getting better; the second pour is a bit more yeasty as well, which adds a grounded earthy note, as well as the typically bready-yeasty note. The carbonation also accentuates a sharp, spicy note that almost has some heat to it.

This beer is incredibly interesting, and quite tasty. I highly recommend this beer if you can get some, and if you can’t try harder because it is worth it. I really like how the various floral components balance in this beer; the honey sweet character is well balanced by the harder floral notes. This beer is certainly all about the flowers though: the yeast and malt character serve to perfectly accentuate the floral flavors. The malt helps to convey the honey-sweet nectar notes and the yeast helps to accentuate the spicy floral characteristics.