Corsendonk Christmas Ale

I remember the last time I had Corsendonk on tap at the Nile. A beer geek friend saw the handle from his seat at the bar, clearly marked "Corsendonk Abbey Pale Ale", and asked "is it the Christmas Ale?" This was in June, that he asked this. No, it's a perfectly fine pale ale, you ninny, but, no, it's not this. This is awfully nice, and this is the first time I've gotten a hold of a keg.
The notes I look back on are from a bottle, of course, and from January, 2003. I'm not sure if I was writing "live" yet, on a laptop hooked up to the internet. Or if I was writing notes, and tranferring them online later. Probably the latter, due to the brevity of the notes. But, they still stand, so, here they are:

 A color that straddles eggplant and plum, underneath a lovely tan head. 

Intense aromatics: raisins, plums, port, cinnamon, ginger cloves. 

A generous buzz on the tongue fueled by a great array of hops,and held up by solid malt base.

 Overall, one gets a feel of holiday breads, cakes ginger cookies. 

Very tasty, warming, delicious.