IMoL Brasserie de Blaugies (the beers at Whole Foods I never bought)

I've walked in and out of the Whole Foods cooler in Plymouth Meeting a few times.  Maybe that's an understatement.  I'll never tell.  I feel like every time I've walked out, I've seen bottles from de Blaugies on a high shelf in a corner, and have only given them the slightest of glances.  While searching to procure beers available both in the Greater Philadelphia market, as well as in Paris, France, eventually, Basserie de Blaugies came up.  I think mostly because of their collaboration with Hill Farmstead (which I haven't been able to find locally, but apparently is falling off of the shelves in Belgium.)  On a recent trip to Belgium, Party Number 2 was able to grab a few bottles from de Blaugies, and I took it upon myself to dust off some of those on the high shelf at the Whole Foods.  We're starting with La Moneuse.  And here we are...

I highly recommend checking out the Shelton website to read a little more about the brewery.  It's pretty awesome.  Schoolteachers, where the wife does most of the brewing, with a Dupont yeast, which is making more and more sense how these saisons are turning out.

Anyway.  The bottles are slightly different.  Shelton imports de Blaugies, and I have a little story with an additional back panel label on my bottle.  It says the beer is named after a bandit who is an ancestor of the brewer.  It's a pretty cute story.  The website however, gives a little more color and states that the bandit used to put people's feet to the fire to find out where they were hiding their money... after he stripped them.  Good times.

Both poured a pretty bright golden color, with enormous fluffy head.  The carbonation was reminiscent of champagne, but extremely fine so that it wasn't difficult to drink.  I got a lot of grape, and the champagne comparison showed up in several other ways.  It has an extremely dry finish, has a very soft mouthfeel (especially as you get into the second and third glass adding a little more sediment.)  The bottle from Belgium had a lot of apple/pear notes and a some mustiness.  We both agreed that the 8% was hidden extremely well.  Of note, I have to believe that my bottle was a year or two older than the bottle from Belgium.  The top of mine was coded BL 12:15, while the Belgian bottle was coded BL 20:16.  I unfortunately have no idea what that means.  As we exchanged some pictures back and forth, it became obvious that for whatever reason, there was much more sediment in my bottle.  I don't know if it's separated over time, or if it was a batch to batch difference, but it was definitely different.

We both agreed that this beer is pretty fantastic.  It definitely shouldn't be sitting on the Whole Foods shelves at 12-13 dollars a bottle.  It's a great selection, and I look forward to diving into the other beers available here.