Lost Cause - Miel Rouge

Cabernet Sauvignon grape mead with orange blossom honey. This is a pyment we've wanted to make for a long time. Local Cab Sauv grapes from Fallbrook combined with local orange blossom honey. Made just like we'd make a regular Cabernet Sauvignon wine: de-stemmed, crushed and macerated on the grapes for four weeks, then pressed off and aged in neutral oak barrels for a year. If this were a dry wine we'd need to age it another couple years to let the tannins soften a bit. But as a sweet mead, the high tannins create a wonderful contrast with the sweetness of the orange blossom honey. The nose is berry jam, grape sorbet, violets and a dash of orange liqueur. The taste is sweet at first with hefty tannins coming in to balance towards the end. A really, really fun mead and very easy to like. This will be a hit in the tasting room.