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It has been some time since my last mead. I don't think I'm generally a big fan of mead, but I can appreciate where it is coming from. I always thought of this as basically just a honey wine, and I think I've made that assertion in previous posts. However, this is weighing in at a mere 6% ABV. For a wine, that is shockingly low. That is pretty much the equivalent of alter wine. In fact, I think alter wine may have more alcohol in it. But, I guess this is about right for an IPA, so maybe sticking this in a can and selling it to beer people is appropriate for the level of alcohol.
There's not much to say about how it looks. It pours like a white wine. It actually produces a little more head than I would expect, and I can pick out points of nucleation. I didn't think these things were carbonated. It appears that I am just wrong. I distinctly remember previous ones not being carbonated, but I guess mead makers can walk to the beat of their own drum. The aroma is honey and wine. I expected to smell a bit of mango, as mango is featured on the label more than once, but I'm really not smelling it.
First sip is so sweet that it's actually reminding me more of a cider. The honey is bringing lots of... honey flavor, and it's bringing a lot of sweetness. I can definitely taste a bit of the mango, but the black pepper that is listed as an afterthought appears to have almost as much influence as the mango if not more. It has the general wine taste to it, and I'm no longer quite as opposed to that flavor as I had been in the past. That said, I still don't go out of my way to encounter wine. It's just not my thing.
I don't believe mead or wine should be imbibed with the sort of gusto that I typically do for beers in this part of my review, so I'm just going to sip this for a little while and get back to you in the next sentence. Okay, so it is pretty much the same as it goes forward. I'm not letting it warm up, as I don't really think that helps any kind of wine, but maybe it's just me.
Bottom Line: Not bad.
2.5/5
