Cantillon Jean Chris Nomad 2011

Description

Cantillon Jean Chris Nomad is a gueuze blended exclusively for the Miorge Mihoublon (sometimes hyphenated as Mi-orge Mi-houblon) beer store in Arlon, Belgium. It is a blend of three lambics of different years aged in barrels that previously contained red Bordeaux, white Bordeaux, and Côtes du Rhône wines. 1200 liters were bottled.^[1]

History / Other Notes

Jean Chris Nomad was bottled in early 2011 and released for sale at the beer store in both 75cl and 37.5cl bottles. The entire Jean Chris series has been a collaboration between the Jean le Chocolatier chocolate shop and the owner of Miorge Mihoublon. Their stated goal with the series is to exemplify the personality of its namesake, "the south of France represented by Jean with refreshing and fruity beers, and southern Belgium represented by Christophe with a complexity of flavors and pronounced bitterness."^[1]

Confirmed Counterfeit Bottles

In June 2012, a thread was started on BeerAdvocate by a member claiming to have received a counterfeit bottle of Jean Chris Nomad 2011. The user contended that "authentic labels have razor-sharp graphics, whereas the counterfeit labels contain graphics which are granular and were printed on a high-quality printer" and that he also confirmed this with Jean Van Roy at Cantillon. The user later noted that one should "look very closely at the label, particularly the "Nomad" text. The red and black areas should be pure, and the transitions from black to red around the letters should be razor sharp, with no granularity or pixelization. The rear label should have a pure white background with sharp black text, even the extremely small text here is sharp on the genuine label. The counterfeit rear label has a slight pinkish background with less sharp text, the smallest of which, down at the bottom of the back label, is just a blur."

In September 2015, just prior to Zwanze Day, Jean Van Roy and Chris Gillard of Miorge Mihoublon opened a purported 75cl counterfeit Jean Chris Nomad given to the brewery circa 2012 alongside a bottle from the cellar at Cantillon and posted a summary on Facebook. The results confirmed that the bottle was indeed a bottle of Classic Gueuze from 2011. The front label was both slightly discolored and the corners more square than legitimate labels. The real Jean Chris Nomad reportedly presented more vinous notes from the barrels while the faked bottle was indisputably a Classic Gueuze.