American meads

Notes :

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• Prices are given by the meaderies, they are not necessarily up to date or applicable everywhere. For more details, please contact the meaderies.
• See tasting.

Chaucer's

• Data from the winery:
  To be served chilled or heated with spices (provided). Honey is orange blossom, alfalfa and sage.
  
  
• Awards:
  • 92 Points - National Champion Fruit Wine.
  • Best Buy - Wine Enthusiast Magazine
  • Gold Medal - Best Buy - '95 Beverage Testing Institute
  • Silver Medal - Indiana State Fair
  • Silver Medal - Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Competition
  • 86 Points - '98 World Wine Championships
  
  
• Review [summer 2001] by paganpath.com:
  Fair in taste but a little flat as in it didn't have much complexity or layers of flavor. Very strong honey taste and very sweet.
  It arrives with spices sealed in tea bags for easy use along with instructions for heating and mulling to make spiced mead. When brewed according to instructions it is much better, a bit like spiced cider, but still sweet. The spices add more complexity of course with apple, cinnamon and other spicy notes. This might be good for chilly outdoor Yule rituals. This mead didn't do as well as we expected even though it has won several awards in the past.
  [Score: 2 / 5]
  
  
• Review [April 2002] by Jacob Johnston published on beer advocate.com:
  This mead gave me reason to hope for both a taste for mead and maybe even a taste for wine one day. Lurgashall's English mead came on too sweet (and cost $10 for a 12oz bottle). This is drier, but still plenty sweet. There's no carbonation and it's kind of sticky. There are notes of alcohol, and biting sulfites that give the smell of honey a little character. The taste of alcohol is subdued, but one can pick up the sulfites and of course it wouldn't be mead without a sweet honey flavor. Very wine-like. That's for the plain mead at room temperature. I used the rest of the bottle to make mulled mead. The bottle came with two bags of clove, cinamon and ginger for mulling. The warmth and spices just added that much more to an already pleasant drink and gave it a slight coppery tint. Either way, this is a good desert drink and would be perfect for cold nights. I'm definitely going to keep a stock of this for winters from now on.
  [Scores: Appearance: 4 / 5, Smell: 4.5 / 5, Taste: 4.5 / 5, Mouthfeel: 4 / 5, Drinkability: 4 / 5, Total: 4.3 / 5]
  
  
• Review [July 2002] by 'EagleTalon' on beer advocate.com:
  This was the first mead that I ever tried. It was too sweet for my tastes. It might be a nice drink to sip slowly, steeped warm with the attached spice bags, because you gotta balance that sweetness with something... anything...
  [Scores: Appearance: 3 / 5, Smell: 3 / 5, Taste: 2 / 5, Mouthfeel: 4 / 5, Drinkability: 2 / 5, Total: 2.6 / 5]
  
  
• Review [November 2002] by 'Hobbes2112' on beer advocate.com:
  I tried this as my first mead. I did warm it up and steep the spice bags in, and it was quite a mouthful. The mead without the spices was intense honey with alcohol...not a whole lot more than that. After the spices were steeped, and it was warm I noticed a much more complex flavor of the mead itself, in addition to the spices. This and interesting drink, good for a winter dessert maybe, but the raspy throatfeel makes this a hard thing to drink regularly. If you are out looking for new things though, try this one.
  [Scores: Appearance: 4 / 5, Smell: 3.5 / 5, Taste: 3 / 5, Mouthfeel: 3 / 5, Drinkability: 2 / 5, Total: 3.2 / 5]
  
  
• My review [January 2003]:
  Straw in color, neither awfull nor great, just not bad. Nice nose, floral and fresh. The taste and especially the aftertaste are overwhelmed by sugar. Just pure sugar that kills everything else. The compelling nose and the complexity are killed dead by the sweetness.
  [Score: 12/20]

T & A vinters

'Mead Harbor' West Coast Reserve

• Data from the meadery:
  We call it West Coast because its the only place you can find the main flavoring ingredient. This is truly a new 'blush wine' experience. semi-sweet.
  
  
• Awards: 2^nd place metheglin & speciality at the Planet Buzz (November 2002)
  
  
• Review [November 2002] by Ken Schramm:
  The mead very accurately nails the scent and flavor of hibiscus blossom against a bed of honey with no real fermentation flaws. It is a flavor that may be a bit unusual for those not familiar with hibiscus, but it wins over skeptics very quickly. If you are familiar, it is inviting and presents with an assertive and unapologetic, but not overly aggressive hibiscus profile. Balanced in flavor and acidity, medium sweet finish. It would be a perfect accompaniment to deep green salads, like spinach salad, to dinner salads or sautéed or blackened fish entrees. Not that I paid that much attention. In short, I really liked it.
  
  
• Review [November 2002] by Christopher Hadden on aboutmead.com:
  The beautiful rose madder hue sets the tone for this metheglin. The fragrant hibiscus aroma is only outdone by the semi-sweet and silky character of the flavor which is strongly hibiscus. Smooth and well-balanced, this mead is hibiscus bliss.
  [Score: 4.6 / 5]
  
  
• Village Corner [November 2002]:
  The flowers enter in. Rotundifolia exotica and intensity. Southern belle./ Floral indeed. Perfumed in fact. Unique. Drink it or wear it? I have no idea what to do with it, score-wise. Good though.
  
  
• My review [December 2002]:
  Nice pink color, but there are some bubbles (may be due to transport.) As expected for a metheglin including hibiscus, the odor is floral and pleasant; it lacks co,plexity though. This mead is too acidic, and especially the aftertaste is dominated by acid. The end result is a mead out of balance and not very pleasant. I'll try another bottle to see if it is better.
  [Score: 11/20]
  

'Mead Harbor' Captain's Reserve

• Data from the meadery:
  A very fine traditional mead semi-sweet and totally refreshing. Made from tupelo honey. semi-sweet.
  
  
• Village Corner [November 2002]:
  Lovely introduction. Smell the tupelo blossoms. Honey and flowers./ Unusual. Modestly sweet, polleny. Clean, lively, delicate. I no more comprehend how to rate mead than I do sake, so I’m not going to put a number on this. I like it though.
  
  
• My review [January 2003]:
  Straw color with a slight haze. A friend of mine could smell apple and nutmeg, let's just say that the nose is fruity. The taste is OK but I really disliked the mouthfeel: after swallowing the mead, I had to drink some water to reanimate my mouth. Aftertaste fairly lingering but disappointing.
  Score: 14/20

Lakewood vineyards

Seifu's t'ej

• Data from the winery:
  The Seifu's Tej is a blend of premium wildflower and orange blossom honeys. The honey is carefully selected by the winemaker for the delicate floral aroma qualities. Seifu's Tej captures the rich warm honey flavors that make mead such a great complement to spicy cuisine.
  
  
• My review [January 2003]:
  Pale straw color, I don't know what kind of honey they use so I cannot draw any conclusion. There is a slight acidity in the nose on top of honey. This acidity also contributes to the taste but it shows before the sweetness so it does not really balance it. Honey taste and sweetness make most of the taste. This mead (and many other) would be better if it were not so sweet.
  Score: 11/20

Rocky mountain meadery

Intermiel