Clear blond colour with lasting head from the lively carbonation. Aroma is yeasty, earthy, floral and fruity. Very dry and clean with fruity, yeasty esters.

Gushing to huge, dense, lightly yellowish head over lively carbonated clear copperish golden beer. Malt, quite grassy, greenery. Bit gassy, CO² very prominent, with some lightly toasted aroma as well. Raw, scorched sugar, undulating metallic bitterness. Mellows a bit down in time, acquiring sweet almondy, amandine flavours. Finish gets bitter almonds. Overcarbonated, slightly burning MF. Some alcoholheat. Meeeh. Again one that wants to be something it can never be. And I prefer Calvados to Spumante. Real one.

750ml bottle. Minimally cloudy, yellow-ish golden colour with average to huge, frothy, quickly osteoporosing, in doing so collapsing, subsequently re-compressing, white head. Slightly grainy, pale malty, sweet-ish fruity, minimally vinous aroma, notes of apricot and peach, a touch of prosecco. Taste is dry, slightly vinous, fruity, subtle fruity sweetness, notes of apricot and peach, hints of prosecco. Minimally oily, watery texture, minimally astringent palate, lively carbonation. Nice composition, quite refreshing due to the lively carbonation, but also surprisingly light bodied and therefore dangerously drinkable.

Apparently already the third one in a series of 'oak aged' versions of Dame Jeanne, the champagne beer from the larger Antwerp region, preceded by a bourbon version and a cognac version (of which the latter isn't even on this site yet). As with the previous two versions, the cork is equipped with a wooden rod, coming from a barrel and drenched in calvados, if I understand correctly; apparently this 'groundbreaking' technique was developed especially for this series and indeed I never saw anything even remotely similar before. Bottom line, however, is that this is an admittedly ingenious shortcut, trying to add woodiness while avoiding the use of an actual wooden barrel. From a 75 cl bottle packed in a brown paper bag (quite ironically if you are familiar with the idea) with an opening in it to show the front label, and with a hangtag giving only limited explanation. Opens with a bang but no gushing. Towering, egg-white, foamy head, shrinking to a ragged, irregular ring of mousse with tight cobweb-like lacing, slowly breaking in the middle; misty yellow-golden blonde robe with apricot tinge and - as befits a 'champagne beer' - columns of fierce champagne-like sparkling rushing upwards from the bottom of the glass. Aroma of indeed a lot of strongly vanilla-scenting wet oak wood (especially in the beginning, so near the top of the bottle, unsurprisingly), indeed calvados, ripe banana, melting butter, fried apples, sweet cider, minerals, pear jam, lychee wine, cava, freshly cut sweet basil leaves, chewing gum, dry straw, camomile tea, old powdery medicine, faint hints of tea, dust and grass. Sweet onset, very pronounced 'bubblegummy' banana ester (banana candy-ish almost) with sweet apple, pear and white grape notes, light sourish undertone enhanced by this fizzy, minerally carbonation - which, lively as it is, fizzes away on the tongue without painfully stinging it; supple, lean body (actually feeling lighter than its ABV - probably due to that lively carbonation), slick cereally and sweet-bready maltiness with minerally and slightly buttery side effects continuing well into a medium long finish, adding the tannins from the wood in a slightly astringent manner, that 'old crumbled medicine' effect, the 'powdery' bready-yeasty effect from the champagne yeast (including a vaguely champagne-ish flavour note), a very floral hop character (camomile, buttercup), an indeed clearly apple-ish calvados colour and warming, soothing alcohol, calvados-like but 'jenever'-like as well, while that banana ester keeps lingering. That old medicine-like effect, bitter and a bit 'chemical', is a rather off-putting aspect to me, but the calvados and the wood are very prominent indeed so apparently this cork-with-wooden-rod thing does what it was intended to do - albeit in a somewhat crude and overly strong manner. Aiming for refinement in a not so refined way - but admittedly quite bold and original, which deserves an extra point in my book. I am, however, not convinced that I should go after the two first versions now - as I argued before about this brand, the basic beer itself needs some finetuning as well.

25th January 2020
Light haze on this gold beer, good pale cream colour head. Smooth palate, slightly soft actually, reasonable fine carbonation. Soft and fairly sweet malts, touch of cereal sweetness. Touch of white wine on its way south. Very mild citrus, slightly tangy too boot. Estery floral fruits. Soft finish. Hmmm! Was expecting something much tighter and crisper that this somewhat flabby affair.

Subtle and classic. Very nice, even with the glass!