Fantôme de Noël

Fantôme de Noël, Belgian Christmas beer, 10%, Belgium.

Fantôme is one of the breweries that I heard ordered a lot by Americans when I was sitting in the Delirium Cafe. I assumed it was pretty hard to get in the States, but with 2000+ choices on the menu, I never got around to it.
Turns out, it's not too rare over here, and I picked up this bottle of their Christmas beer a while back....I think it was from last holiday, but that's ok - for this style, it might actually taste better having aged a bit. Oddly enough, it's both corked and capped for good measure. Always fun to have to use two tools to open a beer!

It pours a nice reddish-brown, with a small, tight head. It smells fruity, slightly funky, with a whisper of spice.
The taste caught me by surprise - tart fruit, cherry, apple, slight cinnamon and spice lingering...but very restrained. It tastes very much like a lambic. I think Cari found it to be too sour, but I thought it was delightful.