I’ve never had mead before, but I’ve been wanting to try it. While I was looking for a couple more wines to finish out Regional Wine Week, I spotted the WineHaven Stinger Honeywine and decided to buy it.
The Peterson family has been keeeping bees for over 50 years. They use the honey from their own bees to make their Stinger Honeywine. The bees make the honey from different types of flowers, and that affects the flavor of the honey. You can read more about some of the types of honey they collect here. The label on this bottle indicates that it was made from Basswood and Wildflower honey.
It smells like honey. It isn’t like your mass-marketed honey at the grocery store. It’s the smell of premium honey. There’s some floral notes in it, too, which I assume come from the basswood flowers and wildflowers. This also isn’t the same as the “honey” smell that you’ll find in some white wines, like a late-harvest Riesling. This is a real honey smell.
It tastes like honey, too. It’s fairly sweet, but obviously not as sweet as pure honey. There’s also a good acidity that balances the sweetness well.
I’m really surprised at how much of the flavor of the honey remains in the finished mead. I really didn’t know what to expect from this. It’s very good. It goes well with spicy foods. It may also be a good dessert wine as it is quite sweet.
It’s somewhat difficult to rate this, since it is so different from other wines, and I have no other experience with mead to compare it to. Nevertheless, I am giving this a “Very Good” rating.
Wine Details
Producer: WineHaven
Vintage: Non-Vintage
Appellation: Minnesota
Variety: Honey (Mead)
Alcohol: 9.0% ABV
Price: $11.00 at the winery website (750 ml)
My Rating: Very Good
