I saw this review the other day on the BeerAdvocate website and just had to share it with you. The poster, basica, was lucky enough to get his hands on a 1984 La Trappe Bubbel. He shares in very great detail exactly what you can get from a properly aged vintage brew. Man, do I want one!

Here’s the review:

La Trappe Dubbel (AGED: 1984 VINTAGE) (Rating 10/10) - 6.5 ABV - 5 September 2007

I pondered over whether to give this 9.5 or 10 and in the end gave it a 10. This is a old bottle of La Trappe Dubbel that I got from Wim, my Netherlands beer friend. I had a contemporary La Trappe Dubbel a 3 days ago and that would serve as a good benchmarking for an aged version.

This age old beer pours out with a nice dark ruby brown without much of a head to speak of. It has a strong and slightly vinous fragrance; lot’s or raisins and some plums; very strong smelling with sweet maple sugars in the nose too; I could really go on sniffing this for a while. The taste punches in with strong dark fruits, mainly plums and some raisins; very well balanced with maple or brown sugar backing to provide hints of sweetness though never too much. Could taste some dark malts towards the finish as well; the finish itself is slightly dry and majorly plummy leaving bag loads of aromatic dark fruits on the nose. The taste reminds me of the Chimay Blue and also the Westmalle Dubbel; it seems like a selective features extract from this 2; at the start it reminds me of the Westmalle but after a few mouthfuls, I think it is more reminiscent of the Chimay Blue. The after taste was strong plums and raisins and lingers for and fades of into light plums with grapes and a dash of apple concluding the after taste; very very wonderful…

Now I shall say that a 9.5 rating is an understatement for this one. The mouth feel is between medium to full body and carbonation was pretty well preserved for a beer this old! Amazing… The beer is not as “flighty” light as the contemporary La Trappe but the extreme smoothness of this beer has never detracted over the years. The main differences between the Vintage aged version of the La Trappe Dubbel and the contemporary Dubbel would be first of all the taste which is very very much strongerin the aged one; and with an immaculate masterful balance. Next would be the change from a refreshing and “flighty” light beer to something that has “strength” and character yet still so unbelievably smooth to drink. What am I thinking when I pondered over 9.5 and 10… this is a clear 10 and I think I am going to put it at the same level or above the contemporary Chimay Blue.

Truly a GREAT beer and if I were to coin the experience in a phrase… “Immensely fruity tasty and sweet; totally complex and immaculately balanced; full of strength and character yet unbelievably smooth”. Very nicely aged… Kudoz to the owner who aged it so very well.

Extra thanks to basica for giving me his permission to repost this!