The first time I had mead, it was awful. We bought a couple of bottles from the local cider bar (I forget the brand) and they were horribly yeasty. We ended up pouring both bottles down the drain and the whole house smelled like raw bread dough for several hours. That pretty much turned the wife and I off of ever trying mead again.
After getting into brewing recently, and reading lots of non-yeasty descriptions of mead, I decided to give it another try... in case those first two bottles were an aberration. A couple of weeks ago I tried amazing commercial cyser, with no hint of yeast, and a wonderfully complex combination flavors that convinced me to try brewing a couple of batches of my own mead and cyser.
None of my meads taste like wine. Mead is really its own beverage. There are a few things to consider though.
1. I've NEVER had a commercial mead as good as homemade. I don't know if they blend the honey too much or just don't age it enough, but I will put my mead against any commercial mead and win every time.
2. Trying one mead and saying you don't like it is like trying a Pinot grigio, disliking it, and saying you don't like ALL wine... Red, white, or otherwise. For example, my wife tried an orange blossom mead and said she didn't like mead. A year later I gave her a tupelo mead and had to triple my production!
Just no accounting for personal taste.
The best commercial representation of a traditional mead I've found is Redstone Meadery's Traditional Mead, but even that one has some notes I'm not in love with.
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