Muscadine Mead

Muscadine Pymet bottled in January 2010.  The label was drawn by Thomas Matechik.

      I recently opened a bottle of my 2010 muscadine pymet.  For those of you who don't know, a muscadine is a southern species of wild grape (Vitis rotundifolia) that is sweeter than normal table grapes with a slight "musty" (though not unpleassent) flavor.  There are many different wild varieties and domestic cultivars, including large and small bronze, green, or purple grapes.  I used to find the most prized variety, the wild scuppernong, all over in and around Tallahassee.  It seemed that almost every rural roadside or city fence had muscadines growing on them.  Also for those of you who don't already know, a pymet is a mead with added grapes (or grape juice).  It is sort of a mead and wine hybrid.

The mead looks pretty nice in the glass.

      Two important differences between muscadines and the better known European grape (Vitis vinifera) are muscadines have less sugar and more acid.  If nothing is done, the resulting wine or mead will be very acidic and of low alcohol content.  So, I decided to add calcium carbonate to reduce the acidity and sugar in the form of honey (making it a mead).  This particular bottle was a few days shy of 2 years old.  The aging did wonders to help balance the mead by mellowing out the originally harsh, acidic flavor, resulting in a dry, and tart golden colored beverage.  About half the fermentable sugars came from the honey, and about half from the grape juice.  I checked my notes to see exactly what grapes I used.  They were a domestic cultivar known as "bronze fry" muscadines that I located in an abandonded lot.  Actually, Jonathan Bolhoeffer and I picked them way back in August of 2009 after driving all the way from Colorado to Florida.  I always love how popping open an old bottle of fruit wine or mead brings back fond memories of the time and place where I gathered the fruit.  As a cautionary note, if you decide to make a muscadine mead or wine DO NOT crush and juice the grapes with your hands.  The tartic acid soaks into your skin and crystallizes causing an intense burning sensation.  I read (and ignored) the same exact warning before I juiced my grapes.  Needless to say, the next time I pressed grapes, I used a home built grape press.