My interest was piqued by the idea of a Saison that is headlined by melon. The use of Ogen melons in half of two melon saisons recently released by Cellador sent me to their tasting room. The other being a Chapo? melon version which was not on draft to compare side by side. I had no previous experience with either melon. There is a really nice light green melon taste here. Honeydew without the sweeter finish, more crisp. It has a nice tartness that takes it a bit further afield from Saison but as a Wild Ale is just right. Has a nice spritziness to it that accents the sour. As it warms, the grain starts to peek through to good effect as does a slight salt note.
Gourde Fumee. Bourbon barrel-aged sour with hot smoked Kabocha squash. Right off the bat is smoke. Then a sour hit follows that. Then the alcohol burn combines the two. Not getting squash notes and any bourbon is well hidden under the smoke which is probably closer to BBQ than campfire. As more sips are taken, I start to get cherry notes but that burn comes back. Maybe the palate is acclimating to the smoke because it recedes fairly quickly but it is still pretty spiky. I do wish the bourbon came through to add a needed layer to balance out the two strong flavors.
From those two paragraphs, you can probably easily tell which of the two that I preferred. It was not really close.