Rushford - Heather Blossom Metheglin

Rushford is a meadery and winery in Wisconsin that first planted grapes in 2013.  They're a relatively young winery but put out a nice variety of meads using local honeys.

Heather Blossom Metheglin is a sweet mead made with honey and Heather Blossom added. I don't believe it's necessarily a traditional heather honey, but has a lot of the same flavor and aroma characteristics.  This bottle is a 375mL with a 13.6% ABV.

A nose of apple blossom, a nice mix of sweet apple juice and some floral components.  The color is a nice, clear, light copper color.  A burnt orange, very reminiscence of apple juice.  At first the taste follows the nose with some apple, but opens up to so many more layers. There's a woodsy character, almost like an oaky astringency to it, in a nice way.  I get cinnamon, heather, floral, almost a cinnamon apple turnover flavor.  A very pleasant dessert quality to it, and as it warms the cinnamon and spices are more apparent and the juicy apple falls away.

This is a lovely and complex mead.  It has that very distinct, sweet heather flavor.  Not quite as heather intense as Schramms Heather, which is a completely different mead so this is not a comparison.  Heather Blossom is very complex with layers that open up nicely as it warms in your glass.  A great fall sipper.