Question- how does Westvleteren age

Just found 3 bottles while doing inventory to sell some wines. Would guess I have had this at least 3 years- maybe 4. Just curious.

age pretty well. Had a 2010 late last year that was pretty damn tasty. Maybe the best out of the 10/11/12/13/14 we had side by side

Very well in my opinion. I think it needs at least 4 years to show its best.

Can you tell when it was bottled??

Usually there is a date printed on the bottle (sometimes the cap). Remember the Europeans go dd/mm/yy instead of mm/dd/yy. I think they may code in the ‘best by’ date as 5 years from the date of bottling, but I’ve had them 2-3 years beyond that (and Rochefort 10 and Chimay Blue) and they are still wonderful.

Just checked- 23.10.16- does this mean was bottled in 2011??

No. The date on there is 3 years from the date of the bottling. So your bottle is 10/23/2013.

Are you sure on that? Haven’t sold Westy in over a decade, but I had bought the last ones in the store along with some Rochefort 10 of almost the same date and I could have sworn I cellared them for 4 years together before hitting the date. Need to check the R10s in the store; perhaps they’ve pulled back the ‘best by’ window to encourage more short term drinking

yep. I don’t know if it’s changed, but it’s been this way for awhile.

http://www.thebeerspot.com/forum/index.php?topic=3995.0

Just checked the two 8’s and one 12 we’re having tonight for Thanksgiving dinner. They’re kind of older. 01/03/15 on the 8’s, and 20/05/14 on the 12. Guess we’ll see how these dusty old bottles do.

I have a bottle from the 90’s. when we open it we shall see

The 8’s I had were noticeably fresher than the 12. The 12 was starting to develop that slightly raisin-y quality.