Bottle courtesy of Athreya. Pours clear golden leaving some subtle legs on the glass with a swirl. Smell is floral with high quality floral honey, pale caramel, vanilla fudge, charred wood, pollen, orange zest, lemon zest and hints of bourbon alcohol. Taste is sweet, very tiny sour and floral. Mouthfeel is soft, round, tiny viscous, slightly boozy and medium bodied. Finish is sweet with high quality honey, charred wood, bees wax, vanilla, pecans, orange zest, lemon zest and hints of bourbon alcohol. Lovely orange blossom character. Beautiful barrel presence. Balanced and damn tasty! Lovely first mead tried from this brewery. --- Beer merged from original tick of Old Dixie Moon on 12 Sep 2016 at 20:55 - Score: 8. Original review text: Lovely orange blossom character. Beautiful barrel presence. Balanced and damn tasty! Lovely first mead tried from this brewery.

Bottle - pours purple pinkish head - nose/taste of black cherry, black currant and honey - medium body

Bottle shared by JTClockwork on 8/13/16.
Light, bronze-brass body shows good clarity and viscosity.
Poignant, white grape, almost sherry-like acidity mixes with nuttiness and vanilla, with strong grassiness that is immediately softened by rich, but well-attenuated honey. Big minerality still mimicking white grape and sherry, with light earthiness and nuttiness on the end. A touch of light alcohol, actually complementary to the nose lingers, with very light orange blossom.
Even more complex flavor and my favorite of the four melovinos. Sherry-like, with a strong grassy, nutty, almost cedary dryness. The sweetness comes through the middle, mixed with balanced acidity, adding plentiful richness and slowly fades to a more dry, grape and orange-like finish, with black pepper and strong minerality. Excellent stuff! Love the levity and brightness here, and I especially like that Melovino doesn’t lean on huge, rich, sweet honey flavors to build/sustain interest/flavor. Like the Zenne Y Frontera of meads.

Bottle shared by JTClockwork on 8/13/16.
Pale-golden with brilliant brass tones, good clarity and viscosity.
Succulent white grape sweetness backed by tons of honey, white pepper and strong citrus-like acidity. It eases in to the orange blossom herbal character which is a bit overshadowed by the grape and honey sweetness but the meads are starkly clean and very free of any strong alcohol tones. Light pepper, stone fruits and soft vanilla all make for a balanced finish.
Rich honey and light minerality are challenged by tart white grape and slowly ease in to orange and tangerine-like citrus. Long honey-almond-vanilla finish accented by nectarine and tart vinousness. Sweet, lightly sticky texture and more classic, rich, big mead-like feel to it than either the Portuguese or Midnight Jack. Lovely stuff, with light oak lingering.

Bottle shared by Jtclockwork on 8/13/16.
Pours a violet-crimson-deep purple. Good clarity.
Big vinous berry nose shows tartness and strong pepper phenols signifying a probable dryness that seems promising. Lots of acidity and tart fruits. Phew, they’ve definitely extracted the deep essence of red berry without any of the mushy sweetness seemingly inherent in most rich meads. Speaking of richness, the honey is fairly succulent, with ample minerality and very low alcohol apparency for its size. Dare I say I’d like more rich honey softness in the nose?
In the mouth, it’s soft, moderately sweet and absolutely poignant to a T. Intense black pepper clings to very light alcohol dryness while red and black raspberry produce a load of tartness. I will say, it’s quite unique and very different than the jammy, sweet-juiciness and rich, vanilla-tinged honeys of Schramms. Boisterous acidity and heavily drying tannins almost overdry the palate, as soft, if not-quite-sweet-enough honey balances the finish. Peppery and incredibly fruity, in a light, wine-like way. Probably about as good an introduction to meads if you’re a wine-lover. It’s hard not to appreciate the dry, wine-like nature, but still elegant, well-extracted, authentic fruit flavors here. Very cool stuff, maybe my small sample wasn’t enough to appreciate it fully, as it seems quite complex and not the onslaught of flavors that most meads in the class produce (though certainly still very, very flavorful).

Bottle - pours purple - nose and taste of boysenberry, raspberry, honey, black currant and strawberry - medium body

Bottle - pours yellow - nose and taste of vanilla, oak, honey and white grape - Lightly sweet with dry grape finish - medium body