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Orchid Cellars – Maryland’s Favorite Meadery

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Hunter and Big Game Hunter

Hunter and her newer, spicier brother, Big Game Hunter

Over at Vinotrip HQ, we’ve been fans of Orchid Cellars for many years. But, for much of that time, we’ve only tasted their fine selection of Maryland-made meads at festivals until we visited their new tasting room in Middletown last weekend.

To recap on mead for any newer readers, it’s an alcoholic beverage made from honey. It tends to have a slightly higher alcohol content than grape wines and is often sweet, but can be made in a wide variety of styles. Thousands of years of history provides a lot of time for regional variations to emerge, after all! Like wine, mead is traditionally aged in oak barrels; it isn’t distilled like spirits, which results in a finished product that is easily enjoyed with or without food. In fact, as we learned in the tasting room, traditional mead styles from eastern Europe were often used as a substitute for wine in regions where climate made production of wine grapes difficult or impossible. This was, of course, before the advent of modern hybrids and cultivation techniques.

Orchid Cellars focuses more on these traditional eastern European meads more often found in places like Poland, which are a bit richer and heavier than Irish-style meads that are more common in the US. But, with about a dozen different meads on the list, they still offer choices for both cold winter nights (serve it warm from a crockpot) and lazy summer evenings.

Some highlights from my tasting notes:

    Archer: this 1,500-year old traditional recipe is made with holiday spices, with a soft finish reminiscent of cloves and nutmeg. It’s also a multiple award winner, taking home a gold AND best in class medal from the 2012 Winemaker’s Choice Awards.
    Blacksmith: a new release and an example of a fruit mead, made with blueberries and raspberries. A little less sweet, but would be absolutely brilliant poured over ice cream.
    Big Game Hunter: you’ve heard me rave about Orchid Cellars’ Hunter as far back as 2010, a spicy mead infused with hot peppers. After many fan requests, the Big Game Hunter is an even spicier version and maybe my favorite thing ever. It’s only available in the tasting room though!
    Merlot: not a mead at all, but in fact their only grape-based wine. Made with eastern shore grapes harvested in 2010, it’s a little on the heavy side because of the hot summer that year. Not my favorite but will be curious to see if they continue experimenting with grapes in years to come!

Just on the other side of Frederick, the drive from Baltimore area is probably about an hour. A full mead tasting costs $5 per person and includes a souvenir glass. You can try the merlot for and extra $1. Let us know if you stop in! You can also find their meads at many area festivals, including the upcoming Maryland Wine Festival in Westminster, September 15-16, 2012.

Oh, this post was also supposed to be about Detour Winery, but they were closed to attend a festival that day. The same festival, by the way, where Orchid Cellars had a table. Of course we didn’t find out they were closed until we saw the sign on the front door of their tasting room. Turns out they’d posted a notice on the hours page of their website, but not on the homepage – which also lists their hours, so of course I didn’t click that link. Some other time, I guess…


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