{"id":17373,"date":"2015-08-31T18:12:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T06:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=17373"},"modified":"2015-08-31T21:25:41","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T09:25:41","slug":"chimay-grand-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/08\/31\/chimay-grand-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of August, Michael Jackson, Chimay Grande R\u00e9serve, and me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michael<\/a>
Research and\/or relaxation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On our roughly spherical planet, yesterday is still today for a good while into tomorrow. Which is convenient, given my topic. But then, whenever you’re late to talk about an annual conjunction of timing, you’re also just\u00a0really early<\/em>.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Anyway, the 30th of August is my birthday,<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and also the anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson \u2014 by which I mean the beer and whisky writer<\/a>, not the other one. Given that it’s also usually the end of beer festival season<\/a> here, it’s an excellent time to ponder inspirations and go back to the classics. And M.J.\u00a0so radically overhauled and reinvigorated what became my avocation\u00a0\u2015 i.e., rambling about beer \u2015 that he might as well count as its inventor. One of\u00a0our\u00a0fundamental organising principles, the notion of “beer styles”, was even his (surprisingly-recent) invention<\/a>. You really can’t overstate the influence. And we’re lucky to have him looming over us, because he was damn good.<\/p>\n

My first introduction to him was the Malt Whisky Companion<\/em>\u00a0that kept me sane while I was working at a bar with a dismal beer selection but an unexpectedly excellent shelf of five-dozen whiskies. Only later did I discover his\u00a0work on beer \u2014 once I’d relocated to a better bar \u2014\u00a0but across both subjects he had the same easily readable, gently educational, and enthusiastically cosmopolitan passion for delicious things enjoyed mindfully and in context. Though it’s maybe too anachronistic a term for someone of his generation, he was a\u00a0proper geek<\/em>: just obviously keen to share his love of his favourite things with anyone who’d listen. Despite his (deserved) stature as the authoritative expert of his time, he doesn’t give off a whiff of snobbery. Read him on something that was ‘new’ and emerging\u00a0and maybe much-maligned \u2014 like the craft beer movement of the U.S. in the eighties, or Japanese single malt whisky \u2014 and you’ll see him strongly rejecting the common and lazy assumption that different is automatically inferior. Instead, he’d pick up much-more-rewarding threads like the broad\u00a0arc of history, how almost everything old is eventually new again, humanity’s\u00a0long-running tradition of mucking with long-running traditions, and how fashion (for Islay whisky, or IPA) is just fashion and will one day be replaced.<\/p>\n

I have my quibbles at the margins, naturally. He’s said some frankly-bananas things about glassware and serving temperatures, which I’ve reluctantly torn apart in User’s Guide-style seminars.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> And a lot of his work was in the Big Compendium Of Tasting Notes\u00a0genre which has unfortunately spawned a generation of imitators<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> who (to my mind) don’t do nearly as good a job of tempering that approach with the necessary context and quirky evocativeness which he\u00a0excelled in.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But he remains a subculture superhero, and a classic forever worth revisiting.<\/p>\n

\"Chimay<\/a>
Sublime nightcap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking of which:\u00a0this<\/em> glorious thing. My friend and former bartending comrade<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Peter gave me a bottle of Chimay Grande R\u00e9serve<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> for my birthday yesterday. It’s long been a favourite \u2014 since I plucked it out of a menu on a whim at an excellent little birthday dinner a decade or so ago, if memory serves \u2014 and this bottle happened to be from the 2007 vintage, so brewed the year we lost M.J.. No better way to mark the moment, salute your superhero, and end the evening, then, than to open it and pair it with a little of the Highland Park that the\u00a0Companion<\/em>\u00a0made me fall in love with equally-many years ago.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> And it was simply sublime. Delicate and luxurious, rich but not overblown, full of perfectly nightcappy flavours like dark chocolate and deeply fruity port. We’d all be lucky if we were aging half as well.<\/p>\n

So here’s to M.J., and to making the most of however-many orbits of the Sun you’re eventually allotted. As you go along, imagine his avuncular voice in your head\u00a0\u2014\u00a0like\u00a0Obi-Wan gently nudging\u00a0Luke\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as he says:<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I want you to think about every beer you put to your lips.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Diary<\/a>
Diary III, page 36<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Original\u00a0Diary<\/em> entry:<\/strong>\u00a0Chimay Grande R\u00e9serve 2007 \u2014\u00a030\/08\/15\u00a0Almost wrote 79 by sheer form-filling habit. @ home, after an excellent birthday. Watching the still-charming\u00a0Beer Hunter<\/a><\/em> series \u2014 he’s just such a natural, if a total dork \u2014 and pairing it also with a Highland Park. Seemed fitting all round, since it’s the anniversary of MJ’s death, which was in 2007. This bottle a present from Pete. So utterly lovely. Suprisingly light palate, so portish + with lots of chocolate flavour later on. Ages so well. The beer. Can’t speak for myself, obviously. But I did alright today. Very lucky chap. Pancakes + bubbles + beer + books + mooching + wandering and just generally having a top notch Sunday. Wouldn’t dare ask for more than that. What would be the need?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 Appendix: The Other M.J.<\/h6>\n

Meanwhile, an excellent coincidence of timing and timezones bundles the other Michael Jackson into all this: the 29th was his<\/em>\u00a0birthday and \u2014 as I said, given\u00a0our roughly spherical planet\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a good chunk of that day for an American just is the 30th for me (or the<\/em> M.J., for that matter). To tie it all\u00a0back to beer and other things of which I’m more-properly a fan, here he is\u00a0drinking a Bud\u00a0(remember: to each their own, and everything in its right place<\/a>) while sitting next to Bruce Freakin\u2019 Springsteen:<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/a>
The Boss, the King of Pop, and the (alleged) King of Beers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On our roughly spherical planet, yesterday is still today for a good while into tomorrow. Which is convenient, given my topic. But then, whenever you’re late to talk about an annual conjunction of timing, you’re also just\u00a0really early. Anyway, the 30th of August is my birthday, and also the anniversary of the death of Michael … Continue reading The end of August, Michael Jackson, Chimay Grande R\u00e9serve, and me<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","category-meta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18356,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/08\/29\/yall\/","url_meta":{"origin":17373,"position":0},"title":"A festival for the rest of y’all","author":"Phil","date":"August 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So that was the week that was. The week that was a while ago, now. How time flies when you're quietly recuperating. Weirdly, given the work I gravitate towards, I'm a natural introvert and crowds of lovely beer nerds are still, you know, crowds. I think exhaustixhilirated just about covers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Light-up signage at Beervana 2016 (Wellington Stadium, 12 August 2016)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18857,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2017\/02\/24\/will-it-gaff\/","url_meta":{"origin":17373,"position":1},"title":"Will It Gaff..?","author":"Phil","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing in the strange experimental spirit we started with our 'Will It Shandy..?' investigation, Dylan \u2015 of The Bottleneck blog, and my comrade \/ direct superior at Golding's Free Dive \u2015 and I ask the yet-more-nonsensical question: Will It Gaff? We realise that's probably not really a noun, nevermind a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2004\/01\/07\/sam-adams-boston-lager\/","url_meta":{"origin":17373,"position":2},"title":"Samuel Adam\u2019s \u2018Boston Lager\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"January 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"So starts the diary. After years of thinking that it was a birthday present, a look at the date here makes me realise it must've been a Christmas one. Shows how rubbish the human memory is, I suppose. (Either that, or I was really, really slack with getting started on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The inaugural diary entry, Sam Adam's Boston Lager","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1001-Sam-Adams-Boston-Lager-300x163.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18326,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/08\/08\/hope-and-dread\/","url_meta":{"origin":17373,"position":3},"title":"Equal parts hope and dread","author":"Phil","date":"August 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The days are just packed. This is always a weird time of year to be a beer geek who works in the beer business; the combination of so much going on and so much to do warrants one of those legendary compound German words. I\u00a0am\u00a0exhaustixhilarated. This\u00a0is\u00a0terrificifying. 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He was calm\u00a0and civilised in a way that'd make you doubt the efficacy of genetics if you'd met me, a loud bastard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Easter the cat and my father (Photo by his wife, my mother, taken in Christchurch sometime in 1969)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GGC-wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GGC-wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GGC-wide.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17136,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/08\/12\/beervana-absences\/","url_meta":{"origin":17373,"position":5},"title":"Beervana 2015 \u2015 upcoming absences and presences","author":"Phil","date":"August 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When the list of Beervana-attending breweries came out a little while ago, I stayed up late and made a spreadsheet comparing the attendees over the last few years against\u00a0the Brewers Guild membership and the list of standholders at this year's Great Kiwi Beer Festival. Obviously. And while it's definitely true\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Er, somethingbeer from someonebrewery (Beervana, 22 August 2014)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beervana-2014-1-wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beervana-2014-1-wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beervana-2014-1-wide.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beervana-2014-1-wide.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17373"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17432,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17373\/revisions\/17432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}