FairWinds Winery Fireweed Mead

[gray]

Took the family out today and happened across a small wine shop I'd never visited before so I popped in. Surprisingly they actually had 3 meads available (sadly, 3 meads seems to constitute a large collection) so I grabbed one of the two I'd already tried and the remaining mead which I'd never had before: FairWinds Winery Fireweed Mead. I actually picked it up for less than their website advertises the price to be. It's 11.5% ABV and is from up here in Washington.

Aroma: Crisp and acidic. Slightly like grape and lemon. But at the same time sugary. A bit like SweetTarts.

Flavor: Definitely has the crisp and acidic thing going in the initial flavor, but it follows up with something I can only describe as musty and then goes right into a nutty finish. And I mean nutty. Big nutty. Not hint of nutty. Big nutty. Cashews I think (possible barrel/oaking flavor being misinterpreted?). I did notice some hints of apple... but the tartness really makes it resemble green apple peel.

Appearance: Pale, pale yellow. Not exactly straw and definitely not gold. ...Olive juice yellow... Almost clear. A bit like a dirty martini.

Overall: Honestly, I'm not really sure how I feel about this right now. The label says it's a "slightly sweet, crisp, refreshing drink", but I feel like I'm being saturated with acidity and nuttiness and I'm having a hard time overcoming it. If I weren't looking at a bottle labeled "mead" I would assume I was drinking a white wine.

And I'm really not trying to be overly critical. I was so excited to see a local mead I hadn't tried before and I'm usually a pretty open-minded guy when it comes to accepting the products people put out.. And the website for FairWinds says that this was a bronze medal winner so there's been fair judging prior to my experience that found the mead favorable. I've just never experienced a mead like this. Maybe my palate is off, maybe the bottle is off, maybe I just need to reevaluate what I expect a mead to taste like... but, as my wife put it, "it tastes like something went terribly wrong".

If I see it again I'll definitely be buying another bottle so I can reevaluate what's going on here. And if anyone else has a different experience, or the same experience, or maybe can tell me that's how this mead should be then I'd love the input. The more I learn about mead the more I realize I still have so much to learn.

With all that being said, I'm still going to drink the bottle. I think it will go great with something spicy...

 

[AToE]

I've had a similar experience, I've actually learned to be afraid of meads described as crisp/dry - because they never seem to actually be dry, they're just sweet (often over 1.010) with a boatload of acidity which was obviously added in powdered form... it just isn't really mead to me (before I get flamed for that comment, read on please!).

I had a "dry" traditional (over 2 years old according to the bottle, so age isnt the issue here) which was 1.010 this past summer. It was actually kinda nice, due to the insane acidity (which I am SURE was added acid blend because I could pick out multiple kinds of acidity, and there is simply NO way that a traditional mead was that acidic) it came across much like a sweeter Gewurz... actually... too much like a gewurz...

This is my problem. In a blind tasting I would NEVER have known it was mead, even though it was a freaking traditional! It had no other ingredients to cover up the honey other than the acid, and they managed to completely disguise it. It was basically exactly like a white grape wine, medium sweet, high acidity.


Due to this (and a couple experiences with my own meads) I have hung up the acid blend permanently (more or less). I think it disguises meads and turns them into just a medium quality white wine. I am experimenting with broadening my tastes to include some sweet meads, but I am going to be balancing them with a boatload of tannin and oak instead of acidity. Though my experience is admittedly limited, it seems to me that tannin allows honey to show through better than acidity (which makes sense, honey doesn't taste terribly acidic to me, but it is slightly bitter) and as such results in a drink that is more "mead" and less "mystery wine".

EDIT: as to the nuttiness, I'm wondering if they possibly used fleischmann's bread yeast to ferment? I've heard it can contribute nuttiness.

 

[mmclean]

EDIT: as to the nuttiness, I'm wondering if they possibly used fleischmann's bread yeast to ferment? I've heard it can contribute nuttiness.

I don't know if they would have used fleischmann's bread yeast to ferment, but I'd be willing to bet that the nuttiness comes from their yeast.

Thanks for your views on the acid blend, I will keep that in mind.

 

[gray]

I was also wondering if it might be an acid blend issue, but I've never used it myself so was unsure I should make an assumption like that

The sweetness was almost distinctly un-honeylike in this mead. Referring to SweetTarts while describing it still feels accurate. It's sugary, but I almost can't say it's sweet. And it's funny you mentioned Gewurz because I was finishing writing up the review last night when I walked into the other room and told my wife, "Maybe they accidentally bottled one of their wines with their mead label and didn't notice. They make white wines there. It could be a gewurztraminer or they make another wine I've never had, but the descriptions of its flavor profile are similar to this..."

As for the yeast being the cause of nuttiness... One thing I did notice today when I finally saw their bottle in the sun is there's actually a fair bit of sediment in the bottom of the bottle that perhaps I didn't notice due to bottle jostling yesterday. I probably got a good amount in my glass which may have contributed to the effect. Although I just poured a small bit off the top that appears sediment free and I'm still drowning in nuts. ;D

 

[darthbooger]

You say it is similar to a white wine of some sort, well I recently tried Bunratty Meade from Ireland, and after studying the bottle after consuming half of it I saw that it is in fact a white wine FLAVORED with honey and spices to make it taste LIKE a mead, it was OKAY, but maybe this is a possibility for yours as well...?

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Oxidation of the mead could be the problem -- with excess exposure to air, ethyl alcohol can oxidize to acetaldehyde, causing nutty flavors (think sherry, a wine that has gone through a controlled oxidation) or tart green apple flavors. Was there a bitterness to the nutty flavor finish? That might suggest oxidation of other components in the mead.

Yes, acid additives don't have the same effect in mead as they do in winemaking. The reason for this is the flavor properties of gluconic acid, the primary acid in honey. In winemaking, acid additives have a strong effect balance and harmony in the wine; in meadmaking acid additives act more like an additive in making a metheglin.

--

 

[gray]

You say it is similar to a white wine of some sort, well I recently tried Bunratty Meade from Ireland, and after studying the bottle after consuming half of it I saw that it is in fact a white wine FLAVORED with honey and spices to make it taste LIKE a mead, it was OKAY, but maybe this is a possibility for yours as well...?

At first I thought it might be because the label talks about their winery and their grapes, but when it speaks of the mead it only mentions the honey. It's labeled as "mead" and I'm not sure about the legality of labeling a bottle as being "mead" if it's a flavored wine. I know a lot of the mead variations end up with a "honey wine" label. I'm not sure...

Oxidation of the mead could be the problem -- with excess exposure to air, ethyl alcohol can oxidize to acetaldehyde, causing nutty flavors (think sherry, a wine that has gone through a controlled oxidation) or tart green apple flavors. Was there a bitterness to the nutty flavor finish? That might suggest oxidation of other components in the mead.

Yes, acid additives don't have the same effect in mead as they do in winemaking. The reason for this is the flavor properties of gluconic acid, the primary acid in honey. In winemaking, acid additives have a strong effect balance and harmony in the wine; in meadmaking acid additives act more like an additive in making a metheglin.

The nutty flavor finish wasn't bitter, no. It was quite nice as far as nutty flavors go Well rounded, almost savory.

Thanks for the input on the acid additives. I'll need to store this information away in my "things to remember" file. My knowledge of acid additives and how they work is meager at best.

 

[beekind]

I used to live near this winery. After I had made a few batches of mead, we had a tasting with local mead (Fairwinds), a non-local (Kasztelanski), and three of my meads. Fairwinds was at the bottom of the list, due to what most people agreed was a "burnt toast" flavor. Now, that I have more experience, I feel that it definitely was something off of the yeasts--not sure what, but it wasn't pleasant--almost like it sat on lees for a long time.