Honeyrun Blackberry Honeywine

Brewed by Honeyrun Winery & Honey Company
Style: Mead
Chico, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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Pours an inky purple, reminding me of Concord grapes. Aroma is a bit earthy, with honey and berry notes being muted. The flavor is surprisingly balanced, with a harmony between the fruit’s acidity and the honey’s sweetness. Overall a solid mead.

Blackberry, honey, and boysenberry nose. The gestalt is of a very sweet dessert wine. Blood red pour, opaque in the glass. Vinous and medium bodied. Surprisingly more blackberry than honey, with rustic seeds detectable, especially in the finish. Very similar to Manischewitz Blackberry. Hard to believe there are no grapes in this. Pretty nice.

Appearance: Pours a clear, purple-red body, the shade of juiced blackberries. As always, these meads look so unassuming and innocent. Smell: Nicely bold, aromatic blackberry fruitiness to it along with a sweet-smelling aroma of ooey-gooey honey. Taste: Right away, it’s tart, tangy, and fruity with a prominent (though not overbearing) taste of hand-picked blackberries. Then, in saunters the luscious honey with a moderate degree of sweetness. Small kick of acidity before the long-lasting, fruity finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Drinkability: Pretty tasty, and I’ve never really been that big on blackberries, either. I make NO APOLOGIES for being the only person here who really enjoyed it. None whatsoever!

(still mead from Berkeley Bowl) More blackberry flavor than honey charactor. Dark black cherry color. Slight honey nose at first followed by very slight fruit nose. Clear bottle.

A good mead. Honey and berry aroma. Pours a deep purple-red color. Flavor is an earthy honey with fair blackberry kick. I’m not experienced with meads and the varieties thereof, but I liked this one fairly well. Purchased by mail from Liquid Solutions.

750 mL bottle purchased at the Davis Food Co-Op. I am going to take away on my appearance score because of the stupidity on the bottle. They have mentioned 5 times on the label, wrapper, and a foil sticker that there are "No Sulfites Added". Amusingly, after two of those proclamations, the next sentence states, "Contains naturally occurring sulfites". Now, I thought the reason why they mention sulfites is for the benefit of those consumers who are allergic to sulfa products. So here begs the question...why the fuck does it matter if sulfites are added if there are naturally occurring sulfites present? I digress. Here’s the rating. Aroma is floral, perfumey, with some blackberry notes as well as some sweet honey notes. I definitiely do not detect added sulfites, so that is a good thing. The aroma is very similar to blueberry pie that is baking. Pretty pleasing. Transparent burgundy-purple body with no head. Fruity start with plenty of berry flavor. Becomes rather tart and slightly astringent in the middle. Lacks some sweetness. Not too much in terms of honey, although it is lightly detected late. Some definite warming ethanol is present in the late middle. Finishes with more blackberry pie flavor. A long finish that is rather dry, but not overly so. Pretty flavorful. Not bad, but definitely not a mead for those who want something sweet.

Poured a murky purple with no head (obviously). Aroma of wildflowers, a bit of blackberries, alcohol, and a touch of musty dusty gym socks. Luckily the flavor is better than the aroma, of strong blackberry notes supported by wildflower honey, a bit more of that mustiness. Two very nice observations about the flavor... the tartness of the berries balances the sweetness of the honey very well, giving this an almost perfect level of sweetness; and I can taste virtually no alcohol in this. In fact, I would not have pegged it as alcoholic if I didn’t know beforehand. However, the mustiness of the honey makes this seem unrefined to me, and although drinkable, is not as pleasant as I would like.

UPDATED: FEB 24, 2008 Purplish color with light legs. Aroma dominated by blackberry and some wildflower honey. Flavor starts out with a light bit of overly sweet blackberry, honey, and alcohol - way too hot for a melomel. I have a batch of Blackberry mead going that is very young and already tastes better than this. Nice try, but not all that great.

Date: 08/13/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Roadtrip

clear deep purple, layers of viscous curtains and a few legs, dry and slightly tart blackberry aroma, rich honey and blackberry flavor, good balance between the honey sweetness and tartness from the blackberry, the tartness grows and is enhanced by the dryness, warming

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **+/4

The aroma is fruity with blackberries, honey, and funk. The appearance is like grape juice. The flavor is like the aroma. The palate is thin. Overall it’s not great but very drinkable.