Apfelwein - 2 years, 3 years, 4 years more?

[Bollo]

Hey everyone - long time listener first time caller. Love the show.

I've got a few 1l bottles of Apfelwein that are tipping on three years (started in April 2013, bottle May of '13) and I'm wondering if I should:

a. Drink them while the going's good (the batch was great at 2 years, obviously).
b. Keep them because they get better with every year that passes.

Anyone got any experience with Apfelwein in the 3 / 4 / 5 year zone?

Would really appreciate anyone's learned opinion!

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I'd drink 1 bottle while mixing up another batch, save the rest of those bottles & drink 1 a year till they're gone. Be sure to make tasting notes & post them here, I for one would love to know how many years max apfelwein can age before starting on the downhill side.
Regards, GF.

 

[Bollo]

I didn't make tasting notes but I cracked open a five year old bottle last month as I had family in town.

I do remember my immediate thoughts - incredibly smooth with an apple taste (that is in no way bitter, think the flesh rather than skin) that lingered after the finish. Nothing detectable to be in terms of that "hot" alcohol taste. It made me think that this is something that it'd be worth someone making commercially (assuming they could afford to let it age for years).

Since I was down to my last case of 12l of the last three batches, I immediately made another 11 gallons with the intent of keeping at least half of that in storage. The rest will either go in kegs (my wife likes it at 3-6 months and it's a nice change from beer) or Applejack.

Long story short, at five years it's certainly not gotten worse than a 2-3 year bottle, and I'd say I like it even more - though I do recognize that your brain does strange things when you know something that you're eating or drinking is rare.

I still have two bottles of the May 2013 batch left, so this thread will probably get an update again in 2023...