A Perfect Valentine's Day Solution For Men: take your honey to Beamsville
If you really want to impress your "honey" on February 14, drive her to Beamsville' s
Rosewood Estates Winery to sample their mead! You might have to be quick because when I checked their stock online, most mead products were labelled, "Sold Out." Mead is not for sissies. Their 2006 Ambrosia boasts a 16% alcohol content, close to the alcohol content of fortified wine.
I talked to Karen LaVigne, Sales Manager, aka Buzzy Bee, and besides being a human encyclopedia of wine knowledge, she
orchestrated a fine tasting accompanied by delicious local cheeses. I was impressed, and Rosewood seems on a roll.
Renata and Eugene Roman purchased 40 acres in 2000 to start a small-batch artisanal winery and meadery. Located on prime Beamsville Bench terroir, 15 acres make up the planted vineyard, 2 acres for the apiary and the rest is part of forested Niagara Escarpment. The Estate Vineyard, named Renaceau, on
Mountainview Road, was planted in 2003 with vinifera grapes including Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Semillon. From that humble
beginning, Rosewood has won 45 awards in three years of commercial wine competitions and was nominated for the Top 25 Canadian wineries in 2008 and 2009.
But let's get back to your "honey." His father gave Roman his first hive at the age of six. It may seem romantic, but don't try this with your honey. Purchase a bottle of mead instead.
Six apiaries are located throughout the Beamsville to Twenty Mile Benches. The honey collected from the Bench show nuances of tree fruit, wildflower and clover. From their hives, the bees travel to the gardens and trees and vines with their busy pollen gathering from early-morning to late summer evenings. Mead is made from the fermentation of honey and water. Honey is flower nectar collected by domesticated honeybees (apis mellifera). Honey is a remarkable product which contains a complex mixture of sugars, enzymes, proteins, organic compounds and trace minerals. These compounds give honey its distinctive flavor and aromas. They carry over into mead production and lend a distinctive flavor to the finished mead.
March 2008 marked the release of the 2006 meads. Harvest Gold is a traditional style mead with a nose of almond and vanilla. Mon Cherie, a specialty mead is made from Niagara cherries blended with Rosewood's honey. Really, now how can you go wrong on Valentine's Day with a beautiful rosé coloured wine with nuances of cherry and chocolate? Your honey will be delighted.
Almost 10,000 years ago, mead was the first fermented beverage consumed by mankind. Hippocrates used it as a tonic. The Vikings thought that honey and mead possessed magical properties, a gift from the heavens aka Valhalla. In Celtic tradition, no wedding was complete without a mead toast to the young couple - for a sweet marriage. Many believe that the word, honeymoon, derives from a tradition where a newly married couple drank mead for a full moon to ensure a long life and a happy marriage.
Meads at Rosewood are made into several different styles. Some are straight Celtic style meads; others are sweeter; and some sit in seasoned French oak barrels for 12-24+ months. "Pyments" are an exciting addition to the Rosewood line-up, combining pinot noir or Gewürztraminer juice with honey to sweeten the fermentation. These "pyments" produce unique, highly aromatic and smooth wines of interesting complexity - sharing traits from both the grape juice and honey.
Both Mead Noir and Mead Blanc have won awards at an international mead competition, capturing silver and gold, respectively, at the Mazer Cup in Colorado. Natalie and Eugene have developed ancient style mead or "Ambrosia" which was released in spring of 2009 after years of work and barrel aging. The meads will continue evolving and improve with age.
Winemaker Natalie Spytkowsky with 14 years of experience, has earned many awards locally and internationally for both wine and mead. In 2008, Luke Orwinski, joined the Rosewood team as assistant winemaker.
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