Old Cherry Kijafa bottle archaeology

January 2, 2025 8:21 PM

This Cherry Kijafa bottle showed up in my building's "free" table and I grabbed it out of curiosity. We just opened it and it's delicious. But we noticed that it is quite old - possibly decades, as there are many variations of the bottle that appear newer. We poked around a little but were unable to date it. Any ideas? And do you think it would have changed or mellowed over the (potentially many) years it has been sitting on someone's shelf?
posted by BlackLeotardFront to Food & Drink (2 answers total)

Best answer: Ok, so I did a tiny bit of research, and your bottle must be more than 23 years old, because in 2002 they lowered the alcohol content for the export market, for tax reasons. That might also explain why your wine has aged well. I wouldn't say a normal new bottle is tasty, but of course, we all like different things.
Here in Denmark, it's a tradition to drink a glas at Christmas, with your ris a la mande, a sort of rice pudding. But since my family wasn't a ris a la mande family, I didn't grow up with this, and have rarely tasted it.

However, there is a new generation of cherry wine producers who make insanely good wine. Frederiksdal is the best known, but I don't know if they do export. It's quite expensive so I rarely drink it, but it is worth every krone.
posted by mumimor at 3:27 AM on January 3 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: How interesting! Thanks for the cultural context. We will enjoy it accordingly!

I'll leave the question unanswered for now in case we can nail down the bottle's era.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:03 AM on January 3