Rüdesheimer Apostelwein 1727



The story of this wine is briefly as follows: The city of Bremen owns the famous Ratskeller or town hall,

underneath which is a legendary cellar known as the Schatzkammer (treasury cellar). In here are 12 very

large elaborately carved casks of wine dating from the 17th and 18th century, named after the 12

Apostles. The oldest dates from 1653, but the wine is no longer drinkable. The most famous is the Judas

cask, containing Rudesheim wine of the 1727 vintage, by repute the greatest vintage of the 18th century.

Wine from this cask has never been sold, but periodically very small quantities have been bottled as civic

gifts from the Bremen municipality to important dignitaries, visiting heads of state, royalty etc. When

any wine has been drawn off like this, the cask (about 3000 litres + in capacity) has been topped up with

young Rudesheim wine of the finest quality. In this way the barrel has been refreshed, as the old wine

feeds on the sugars in the younger one. But only a handful of half bottles have ever been drawn off at one

time, and so this top-up wine only constitutes a tiny percentage of the overall volume, the vast bulk of

which is still the original 1727.



This is, quite simply, the oldest drinkable wine in existence.



Here are Michael Broadbent's notes on this wine:



in Bremen. The first time this appeared in a Christie’s wine catalogue was in 1829 when it sold for 5

pounds per dozen, a high price at the time. An occasional half bottle has appeared at auction since that

This wine comes from a large cask in the famous ’12 apostles’ cellar beneath the Town Hall or Ratskeller

date, mainly over the past 30 years. The wine is drawn from the mother cask which is then topped up

with a young Rudesheimer of appropriate quality. In this way the large volume of the old wine is kept

refreshed. I first tasted the 1727 at Schloss Vollrads in 1973 at a tasting of wines of the world to

celebrate Count Matushka’s 80th birthday. Another memorable occasion took place at a dinner in Sydney

on the evening of my first visit to Australia in February 1977. By way of welcome, my host, the

