My current "2 year" battery is coming on about 2 years. I intend to replace it in Spring regardless because it's a cheap, worthy investment for these cars.

Is it OK to simply remove the battery during the winter storage months, and then just put in my new battery when I'm ready?

I store it without the battery in the car. One time having a destroyed battery box made me do this.

Before doing so, make sure that your key does work in the trunk lock properly. HUGE PITA when I didn't do this on an A8 and had to pull the back seat to get to the trunk to crawl around and connect power so that I could pop the trunk.

Thanks for the visual.. LOL I can't imagine myself pulling that one off.

I've disconnected my battery every winter that I store the car after a bad experience during the first winter. I use a disconnect I installed on the battery cable. Never had an issue.

As pointed about above make sure your key works in the trunk opening, and make sure all the settings (locked or unlocked doors, windows up or down), items out of the car if you're locking it, etc. are all done before you disconnect. I don't know how many times I've disconnected then realized I forgot something and had to connect for that.

First year problem was a battery that froze and cracked. Had this problem again a couple years ago and after that I bought an AGM battery which is much more maintenance free and either more resistant to freezing or won't freeze (not sure which).

The biggest risk from these cars being stored during the winter is that the fuel pump fails. Many reports here on the forum of this happening when these cars sit for long periods of time regardless of whether or not the battery is removed....

I wouldn't remove it simply because if you need to remove it in a hurry (i.e. fire down the street, flash flood etc) but that is probably a little extreme. Should't hurt anything, just so long as you have all your security codes etc.