Chaucer's Raspberry Mead
Chaucer's Raspberry Mead is Bargetto Winery's melomel — a fruit-and-honey wine blending Chaucer's honey mead with raspberry wine (roughly 85% honey / 15% raspberry wine per the winemaker's technical notes). Approximately 10.8% ABV (sources range 10.0–11%; confirm from the bottle label), 750mL — available to order online at Del Mesa Liquor, San Diego, CA.
From Bargetto Winery's Chaucer's Cellars line in Soquel, California: fresh honey (alfalfa, orange blossom, and toyon from Northern California beekeepers) fermented without artificial flavorings, concentrates, or colorings, then blended with raspberry wine made from raspberries grown by Sweet Briar growers in the Watsonville area. The winery calls it "new wine for Chaucer's Cellars" — less sweet than the regular mead, and, as the winemaker notes, "a blend of fruit and honey has been enjoyed for centuries."
Tasting notes (per the winemaker notes and retailer consensus): a whopping fresh-raspberry aroma with hints of honey and spice; a crisp, fruity, refreshing palate where the flavor "explodes with raspberry and honeysuckle"; a lingering crisp raspberry-and-honeysuckle finish. Residual sugar 11.2%, total acidity .79g, pH 3.2 — the acidity keeps it lively rather than cloying.
Why buy this mead? Because it is the lightest-footed of the Chaucer's dessert wines — real California raspberry, real honey, whole fruit with no artificial anything — and a genuine melomel, one of the oldest drinks in human history. Browse the Bargetto Winery brand collection, more dessert wines, and other fine wines.
Serving note: serve well chilled in a dessert-wine glass; consume shortly after purchase to enjoy the natural honey flavor. Pairs with fresh baked cookies or biscotti, fruit desserts, and light appetizers.
What is a melomel? A fruit-and-honey wine — Chaucer's Raspberry Mead blends the house honey mead with a smaller portion of raspberry wine (85% honey / 15% raspberry wine per the winemaker's notes).
How strong is Chaucer's Raspberry Mead? Sources list 10.0–11% ABV (Bargetto's own technical notes say 10.8%) — a light dessert-style honey wine, not a fortified spirit.
What does raspberry mead pair with? Serve it chilled with fresh baked cookies or biscotti; the crisp raspberry finish also works with fruit desserts and light appetizers.