explosivedog (14050) reviewed Raise the Roof from Enlightenment Wines 5 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle pour at Pastrytown. Pours pale. Funk, toast, white wine, floral, sharp. Spritzy body. Fine.
Anders37 (30296) reviewed Memento Mori from Enlightenment Wines 7 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Pours a hazy pale yellow color with no head. Has a fruity spicy dandelion honey aroma. Fruity spicy honey and dandelion flavor. Has a fruity spicy dandelion and honey finish.
SaltyGrog (4618) reviewed Fey from Enlightenment Wines 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle pour at Upright Brew House. Nice stemware! Ever so slightly hazed, so barely. Rich, honey-colored body. Smell is deep in macerated apples, like some Dupont Reserve. Tart nose. Taste is dry, tannic, apples. Mellow, oaky booze. Warming. Slightly tart on the finish. Body is on the thinner side. Was hoping for a slick, full bodied Mead. Good, but this could be tastier cold.
SaltyGrog (4618) reviewed Dagger from Enlightenment Wines 8 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Healthy pour at Honey’s a couple weeks after they opened. We were there for the holiday market. It featured a lot of straight up odd people selling everything from curious knick knacks, to straight up useless failed art class experiments. Anyway, the drinks were good. A very unique bar, with a unique lineup. Stem glass. A dark, maroon-colored brew. Smells of herbs & cherry skins. Taste is so intensely cherry, with a backdrop of chamomile & something unfamiliar, though enjoyable. Slightly textured, unfiltered feel. On the end, the cherries roll into pits & express themselves with a strong tannic finish that lingers forever. No real honey character aside from a little body, but it is so tasty that I only realized it once I finished writing.
Anders37 (30296) reviewed Floralia from Enlightenment Wines 9 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle. Pours a hazy yellow color with no head. Has a fruity spicy juniper aroma. Fruity spicy juniper and marjoram flavor with hints of honey. Has a fruity spicy juniper finish.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5
Bottle from Chamber Street Wines. Came here for a cider tasting, & had never even heard of this stuff. Bottle 634/1056.
Wrapped champagne bottle. Cheap, plastic, white, old-school stopper. Poured into a highball glass. Silly carbonated, but it’s not a gusher. Crystal clear, orange on blush sort of color.
Yeasty, flowery, red apple nose. Light wax. Spirited.
Taste is flowery, yeasty, waxy, & full of half tart, juicy, almost spiced apple essence. Gently bitter. Quite dry. Thin. Moderate acidity. Awesome carbonation & texture. Delicious.
Amazing champagne-like stuff. I wouldn’t of guessed this as a mead. Almost as amazing, was that this was bottled in 2010.
Notes from 10/05/13
SaltyGrog (4618) reviewed Saint Crimson from Enlightenment Wines 12 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle from the New Amsterdam Thanksgiving Market. Pretty embossed/textured gold snakey emblem on a clear, tall, 375ml container.
Poured into a baby Duvel tulip. Watery. Deep grapey purple, with crimson highlights.
Smell is intense with super tannic grape skin/juice, currants, & dry blueberries. A bit of bitter leafy greens, which I guess are the hops.
Bittersweet, jammy flavor. Black cherries & lots of pith. Loaded with tangy, earthy, semisweet currants. Lost hops, but there’s a bit of a dankiness on my burps. No word on what happened to the honey either.
Thin, but not as completely as many of Enlightenment’s other meads. There’s some sugar in there to make it coat a little. Tannins are awesome. Shy alcohol.
Very, very tasty.
SaltyGrog (4618) reviewed Rubacuori from Enlightenment Wines 12 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle from the New Amsterdam Thanksgiving Market. Free sample edition.
Clear, hard, plastic wine sampling cup. Simple, clear, somewhat dark blush color.
Light, leafy, skin/pithy macerated floral scent.
Bittersweet, dark, earthy berries. A bit rhubarb-y. Fruity & unsweetened. Low tartness, more acid. A touch of doughy yeast. Bitter, drying finish. No honey character.
Hidden bit of body. It’s not completely thin. Quiet alcohol.
A lot like blush wine. Simple, fruity, mildly tannic, easy.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
2012 Bottle from the New Amsterdam Thanksgiving Market. There were samples. Sparkling mead! :D
Poured into a baby Duvel tulip. Pours out a pale red/pink, turning cherry brown the further down it gets to the yeasty bottom. Just a bit opaque. Quick, strong, heady soda fizz-out.
Smells of raspberries more then cherries, & the cherries come off half way between black & pie. Not very potent, but still salivating. A note of caramelized apples hit a bit late.
Taste is tart, sour-ish cherry juice & acidy & tannic apples. Not potently fruity, it tastes a touch watered down. Yeasty, more so the further down in the bottle you get. A bit more yeasty then I would like. Nice pithy bitter finish.
Really quite carbed. Quiet alcohol. Yeasty. Thin.
Not my favorite of the bunch. It’s great scent leads to a bit of a letdown in the taste, if only proportionally. Unusually refreshing for a mead. Not terribly priced for what it is($30ish).
SaltyGrog (4618) reviewed Saturnalia from Enlightenment Wines 12 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle from the New Amsterdam Thanksgiving Market. Bottle 126/150. Bottled in 2012 Looks like there were a few batches, totaling up to the production number.
Poured into a baby Duvel glass. Mostly clear, mostly. A bit of disturbance near the bottom. There is some cake down there. A light tea-ish sort of color. Still.
Smells of something strangely floral & lemon at the same time. Acidy apricots. Backdrop has a cooling methol quality & green, herbal sage thing going.
Tastes of acidy, tannic apples, earthy bitter greens, & tangy yellow grapefruit. Light bit of yeast in the drying finish.
Body is very thin & lappy, & not quite like your usual mead. Alcohol is all there, but much like white wine, it stays in check. Much like wine, it flows.
A bit pricey(average as far as mead’s go), but refreshing, & of course, different. :)