'Reserves' can often be the stomping ground of wines and spirits, but why not beer? Budvar Reserve is the perfect example of why a beer 'reserve' can be a wonderful thing.
A lager that's matured for 200 days underneath the brewery - long enough to learn a language, according to brand ambassador Radim Zvanovec - to create a beautiful beer that is great for something a little more special.
Not that you need an excuse to drink it, but it's certainly not a beer to drink in the park after several cans of own-brand supermarket lager. This is a more refined drinking experience.
The aroma retains some of the maltiness of the original lager, but also adds some sweetness into the mix to make it a very alluring aroma. The pour allows more of this sweetness to appear, with the alcohol coating the glass and giving the beer more 'legs'.
The texture of this is quite sticky, but with a honey-type sweetness in the flavour that is similar to mead in the sweetness balanced with the malt flavour that reigns it in to be more balanced.
The aftertastes is a little bready, more exacerbated in the sweetness than the Budvar Original but a similar kind of flavour. It's genuinely a delight to drink.
A reserve means a more reserved label in this instance, with Budvar dropping the 'Budweiser' part of their orginal label and instead opting for Budvar Reserve as the main text.
The red is much deeper and is more regal, especially against the cream background with the gold lettering on the red. Very classy indeed.
The coat of arms of Ceske Budejovice is at the top, but in red and gold this time as opposed to the red and blue of the orginal version. The detail on the bottle - explaining about the extra mature aging process - marks our just how unique this is.
A special release, you can only buy this from Flavourly or Beer Hunter at the moment where it comes in at £2.45 per 330ml bottle. However, you do need to buy them in crates of 20.
Which is by no means a bad thing. If you don't want to get that many at once though you can wait until September when you will be able to get it on draft in certain places.
