$re = '/.+?(\d\d\.\d\d\.(2015|2016|2017)?).+?/';
$str = 'BEGIN:VNOTE
VERSION:1.1
BODY;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE;CHARSET=UTF-8:18.07.=0A14.08.=0A15.09.=0A15.10.=
=0A13.11.=0A13.12.=0A12.01.=0A03.02. Grippe=0A06.03.=0A04.04.2015=0A0=
5.05.2015=0A03.06.2015=0A03.07.2015=0A02.08.2015=0A30.08.2015=0A28.09=
17.11.2017=0A
DCREATED:20171118T095601
X-IRMC-LUID:150
END:VNOTE';
$subst = "\1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php