I got myself a bottle of Orval in the Porterhouse yesterday. To my delight I noticed it was bottled in June '06 making it a year and half old. Is this normal? I'm not sure if I've ever bothered to check before, but it seemed to taste different. I reckon every bottle of Orval I've ever had has been different to the last but this struck me as being particularly special, smoother yet even more complex. It was possibly the placebo effect of noticing the bottling date though.
Anyway, just so you know, Porterhouse are selling slightly older Orval than usual (chilled to within an inch to itys life of course!)
