22 year old "country" wine

GreginND · Feb 5, 2023

22 years old. Arguably one of the best wines I ever made as an amateur home winemaker, this wine, made from fresh pink grapefruit, was fermented and bottled in 2001. This is the last of its kind that I opened up last night. I was very pleased to find the wine aged beautifully. The color was great with almost no browning. It still smelled delightfully of grapefruit and tasted like I remembered the last bottle I had 15 years ago - slightly off dry, crisp balanced acidity, fresh pink grapefruit flavors and no bitterness from the pith. I was never able to recreate this balance since. I’m glad I hung on to this bottle for so long.

I've had much younger wines that have tasted "aged" much more than this. You know, that sort of dusty, earthy oxidized flavors? This wine had hints of age but those off aged flavors were not perceptible.

What's the oldest non-grape wine you have tasted?

mikewatkins727 · Feb 5, 2023

7 yo elderberry at Christmas 2022.

VinesnBines · Feb 5, 2023

Thirty-four or thirty-five year old cranberry made by my mother in 1972 or 1973. Stored under her house on a dirt floor and sealed with a screw lid. She passed away in 2007 and when we cleaned out the house for sale, we tried her wines. The only bottle of cranberry was the only bottle that has not oxidized to undrinkable. It was pretty good.

hounddawg · Feb 5, 2023

16 year old elderberry, just a taste of heaven, pure black elderberry aint even ready to sip for 8 years, although for some reason you can shorten the time table by adding wild blackberries, at ferment time,
Dawg

Rice_Guy · Feb 6, 2023

* mom’s 29 year old black raspberry, again cleaning out the basement and a solid screw cap.
* in Hungary last year some local variety ten year old resisting type grape
* haven’t opened it yet but I have collected a ten year old wild grape from a church friend.

This is a good thread. When going over several years of rhubarb I noted that retesting the old wines, the TA had dropped relative to the current year. There is more happening than oxidation, ,,, and there isn’t a lot written about age related changes.

Noontime · Feb 6, 2023

Wow that's incredible! The only wine I've had for more than 5 or 6 years is a faux sherry I made in 2008. I oxidized the hell out of it to begin with to get those nutty sherry notes, so I didn't think O2 would be an issue. I still have 2 left to taste every few years, and just opened one a couple of weeks ago with friends. It was still very good with nutty vanilla flavors and very enjoyable. I'm disappointed though that the mouthfeel seems to be getting lighter as it gets older rather than smoother. Other wines have integrated with age and increased viscosity, while this one seems to getting thinner and flavors are becoming individual separate components. It's interesting.

Michael Kusenko · Mar 14, 2023

20 year old blackberry was amazing!

Gilmango · Mar 14, 2023

Only been making wine since the pandemic, but this thread inspired me to open a 13 year old sour beer. Still holding up really well, very lightly carbonated, lots of ruby red grapefruit, very little has changed in the past 12 years (1st year of aging did see changes).

Vinobeau · Mar 15, 2023

Last Friday, I opened a 1973 Christian Brothers Vintage Port to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. I was a little surprised that it only had a T-cork, whick broke off with the first turn. The wine was very good.

photoguy · Mar 18, 2023

Had to go and check my cellar. Still have 5 bottles of rhubarb bottled in October 2000. Last one I opened was unbelievable. So hard to keep your hands off!