White Winter Black Mead

Brewed by White Winter Winery
Style: Mead
Iron River, Wisconsin USA

Bottle courtesy of tytoanderso. Pours ruby red. Smells of black currants, some honey, a hint of tartness. Tastes of black currants with a touch of honey. Decent.

Garnet sanguineous liquid. Still with no legs. Red currant, kiwi and passion fruit aromas. Dry light spice start. Thin and a touch lifeless. Somewhat grape juice like. This will be great to cook with and just a nip while cooking will be enough. Alcohol very well hidden for 11.5.

Sample at the meadery, late July 2006, from a White Winter glass. Dark dried blood in color, still with thick legs climbing the glass....strong husky currant sweet-tartness in the nose, honey only shows up and tempers the intensity with a few minutes’ warmth....dry, acidic flavor profile, lots of fresh and dried fruit character, only lightly sweet and not at all syrupy, quite tart to finish....beautifully done though not something one could drink much of at once, quite powerful.

Thanks for sharing, iowaherkeye. The body is burgundy with a pretty head. This looks, smells and tastes more like a currant red wine than any mead I have ever tried. The aroma is completely black currants, I could not pull out any other smells. The taste has lots of currants with a floral tone to it. There was definitely noticeable alcohol. A little bit of black pepper spice came through in the finish. The currants dominates the honey, but that is not a bad thing.

During May ’07 brewpub tour, stopped at the winery in Iron River, WI. Black Mead is a dry honey wine with a burnt redish/merlot color. Aroma of earthy berries, almost Kiwi shoe polish. States is not as fruity as Black Harbor but nice tart currant and sweet light honey. Finish is dry and smooth.

Sampled at the winery. Pours a dark red color. Dark berry aroma. The flavor certainly reminded me of a large-bodied red wine like a Pinot Noir. Deep cherry and currant flavors. The sweetness from the honey is barely detectable.

Bottle at iowaherkeye’s tasting. Thanks for sharing Joey. Poured an attractive clear ruby red color. Aroma was of distinct fresh berries, almost like a Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. Slightly sweet up front with a dry-ish finish. The alcohol was certainly tangible at 11.5%, but not overpowering. The berries strong-armed the base mead flavor to a certain extent, but not in a bad way. Pretty tasty.

750ml bonus from tytoanderson. Thanks Tye. This is tasty and drinkable, and drunkable for that matter, if its not a bit too fruity. Pours reddish purple with no head. Nose is sweet and curranty. Taste is currantalishous with some honey. Clearly there is alcohol in this mead, but its almost like cranberry ocean spray, there is tartness and sourness, which I course like but, I come back again and again to the oceanspray cranberry, but thats ok I guess, this is indeed a strange and enjoyable mead, but still something is sitting on my shoulders trying to butt into the conversation, but when he opens his mouth the words are not there, he doesn’t know what to interject, because I don’t know, its just blanketedly eeirie.