Honey wine. The name alone does it for me. (But then again, I have a soft corner for the sweeter end of the wine scale, so that's hardly surprising.) I got my first taste of honey wine - or mead - more than four years ago in the little Russian town of Suzdal, a few hours out of Moscow. Suzdal did mead-tasting in style! It had an entire hall bang in the centre of town dedicated to it - complete with long log wood tables, stained glass windows and servers dressed in suitably serving-wench-like attire. All it needed to complete the mead-tasting-tableau in my mind were a few Vikings slapping down mugs of the stuff and platters piled high with chicken drumsticks stripped clean. Ok... I'll admit... my overactive imagination may be running a little away with itself :) Still, the mead tasting hall left an impression on my mind... and a lingering taste for the stuff in my mouth. So when I found a stall selling mead at the very festive Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park in London a couple of weeks ago, I was first in line! The stuff on sale was mulled mead. All the better in my opinion... nothing quite like a hot, sweet, spicy alcoholic drink to take the edge of a chilly winter's evening :) I was all ready to part with my pounds having already downed a little taster cup when the server placed another cup in front of me containing - the rather intriguing sounding - Viking Blood. Viking Blood is mulled mead (hence the Viking connection) tinged with cherry (hence the red = blood connection) and I'm pretty sure it's inventive name accounts for a good chunk of people having a go at trying it. But even without the creative marketing, I think Viking Blood would be a winner. Mead on its own can have a bit of a cloyingly sweet aftertaste. I remember the mead-tasting hall in Suzdal serving up its honey wine laced with a number of different ingredients including pepper and juniper berries, and the flavoured mead tasted a lot nicer than the plain variety. The spices and tartness of the cherry brings the same advantages to the Viking Blood. I could easily have gotten through a few more cups of it... I may have to make like a vampire and hunt down a Viking or two this winter to get my fill :)
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4 Comments
22/1/2013 04:35:39 pm
My first introduction to wine was dessert wine. Very sweet, cloying almost but drinkable. I have not had it for years.
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27/1/2013 05:38:25 pm
Mulled wine made with dessert wine is great! I've had a mulled version of red wine mixed with port that tasted incredibly Christmassy :)
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