Chimay Grande Réserve 2001

I was wondering what beer I would have for my 100th tasting in the 40b40, when my colleague Alain invited me out to Beermania for a drink. We looked around the shop for something special, something I hadn’t tried before, and we settled on a dusty bottle of Chimay Grande Réserve 2001.

I had tasted the Chimay Grande Réserve 2007 before, but I really wanted to see what aging process would do.

In short, the 2001 is a completely different beer from the 2007. It’s darker, thicker and one hundred times smokier. It has none of the raisin/date taste to it. And, it’s gorgeous. Just a wonderful beer in every respect. Aged Chimay Grande Réserve needs to go on to my list of top ten Belgian beers, but I’ll have to think about what to get rid of from that elite group. And I’ll need to experiment some more with older and younger bottles of this one.

Cheers, Alain! Hopefully we will get the photos out of your phone at some point...