Maxwell Liqueur Mead

Pale gold colour, sweet honey and herbal. Liked it.

Appearance: Pale amber/gold. Clear with no particulates. Aroma: Mulled wine (heavy on the cloves), orange marmalade, ginger, cinnamon. The dry glass is all cloves and cinnamon. Flavour and Texture: Sweet with a mild heat. A trace of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, some orange and dried apricot and even a touch of honey but everything is dwarfed by an immense flavour of cloves. The texture is good, and reminiscent of a botrytis riesling. The aftertaste is sweet spiced honey. Normally I wouldn’t review mead on Distiller as it’s a fermented product in line with wine and beer, however this specimen is a liqueur mead that checks in at 18% abv and that makes it comparable to honey liqueurs and amari. This is a most frustrating product because it seems to be a good honey-based liqueur that is drowning under the weight of an absurd amount of spice, specifically cloves. Consequently it has no nuance or subtlety whatsoever. Apparently Maxwell Meadery bases this on their core-range spiced mead but they then add even more spices and pump it up to around 3 times the strength by spirit fortification. It is certainly not unpleasant to drink, even compelling in a strange way, but there is so much clove influence that it dominates the nose and palate to the point that it is almost literally a clove liqueur with traces of honey rather than a honey liqueur. I cannot understand why they felt compelled to be so heavy handed with the spices because the liqueur would be much, much better without it. If it were presented without the spice I’d probably rate this around 3.5, as the aroma and palate are fundamentally good (as far as I can tell). However as it is I can only consider this recipe as a curiously awkward sideshow attraction. “Adequate” : 74/100 (2.25 stars)