Producer: Lurgashall Winery
Wine: Christmas Mead
Country: United Kingdom
Wine: Mead
Grade: B
Price: $15

Dating back some 8,000 years, mead is argued to be the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man. A substance made from the fermentation of honey, it spans the legends of history claiming to be everything from the favorite drink of the Norse Gods to the wine referred to by Shakespeare. Making for a sweet, golden beverage, mead is not quite like anything else on the wine market. Combining the pleasures of honey and wine makes for a concoction that is quite confusing regardless of one’s experience with grapes. Fortunately, Lurgashall’s Christmas mead provides an easy entry for the mead beginner. Not as punchy as say, Tower of London mead (which is fortified with scotch whiskey), Lurgashall’s Christmas mead allows for a very rich honey flavor with subtle hints of white grape. Not too thick and with a sugary odor, it is a strange looking liquid for most but an approachable one. It loses points for a quaint but unwelcome aftertaste and a sweetness that, a few glasses in, can become too rich. Altogether though it is a nice way to expand your views of what can be put into a bottle. Unless you frequently drink your wine with honey the taste will be surprising, but this particular bottle makes the surprise a pleasant one.

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