This week I'm in/on Hawaii. Fun! After visiting the Volcano National Park, we went to "the southernmost winery in the US", Volcano Winery. Turns out they've got mead too; the pourer said "this is mead", though the little printed descriptions said "honey wine".
The wine was...ok. The Pinot Gris (I think) they poured us first was pretty bad, very charred oak barrel and not much else. Maybe if it was allowed to sit for awhile that would mellow out, hard to say. The Pinot Noir was better, but still not great, tasted more like a barrel sample than a finished wine.
They had two wines featuring Jaboticaba berries as well as grapes. These were interesting and a lot more fun to drink than the grape-only wines.
Also they had a grape-guava wine, you could really taste the guava and the aroma was very good. Thumbs up for experimenting with local fruit.
Lastly they had two meads. I was rather excited to see these on their sheet, who would have thought I'd find mead in Hawaii? Both were made with 100% macadamia nut honey. The first was a sweet varietal mead. It was a little overly sweet, and the honey notes tended toward the toasted nut side of things. I haven't had the honey by itself, so I'm guessing that's just the way it tastes. Overall it was an ok mead, special for the setting and the honey variety but not something I'd want to drink a lot of.
The second mead was the same thing, only with the addition of black tea from their property (they make black, white, and oolong teas). This mead was great. The tea offset the sweetness from the straight mead, mellowed out the toasted nut character, and just smoothed the whole profile. Unfortunately it was $36/375ml, so we didn't buy any. If that price was for the whole 750 ml bottle, I'd consider it.
They also had tea for sale. The samplers smelled pretty good, and the tea was very unprocessed (whole leaves, small bunches of leaves). Probably very good tea. Again too expensive, $43/oz. Oh well.
Their tasting room/shop was cute and the pourers were friendly. The location of course is awesome, so I'd say it's worth a stop if you're in the area.
The wine was...ok. The Pinot Gris (I think) they poured us first was pretty bad, very charred oak barrel and not much else. Maybe if it was allowed to sit for awhile that would mellow out, hard to say. The Pinot Noir was better, but still not great, tasted more like a barrel sample than a finished wine.
They had two wines featuring Jaboticaba berries as well as grapes. These were interesting and a lot more fun to drink than the grape-only wines.
Also they had a grape-guava wine, you could really taste the guava and the aroma was very good. Thumbs up for experimenting with local fruit.
Lastly they had two meads. I was rather excited to see these on their sheet, who would have thought I'd find mead in Hawaii? Both were made with 100% macadamia nut honey. The first was a sweet varietal mead. It was a little overly sweet, and the honey notes tended toward the toasted nut side of things. I haven't had the honey by itself, so I'm guessing that's just the way it tastes. Overall it was an ok mead, special for the setting and the honey variety but not something I'd want to drink a lot of.
The second mead was the same thing, only with the addition of black tea from their property (they make black, white, and oolong teas). This mead was great. The tea offset the sweetness from the straight mead, mellowed out the toasted nut character, and just smoothed the whole profile. Unfortunately it was $36/375ml, so we didn't buy any. If that price was for the whole 750 ml bottle, I'd consider it.
They also had tea for sale. The samplers smelled pretty good, and the tea was very unprocessed (whole leaves, small bunches of leaves). Probably very good tea. Again too expensive, $43/oz. Oh well.
Their tasting room/shop was cute and the pourers were friendly. The location of course is awesome, so I'd say it's worth a stop if you're in the area.
