密西西比州唯一的米德酿酒厂是吸引旅客和蜂蜜一起去图珀洛尤文图 德赢

如果您不是来自深南方的，您可能会听到“ Tupelo”一词，并立即将其与蜂蜜（或Van Morrison）联系起来。然而，图珀洛市 -northeast corner of Mississippi，以Elvis Presley的出生地而闻名，而不是Tupelo Honey的来源。但是，它是该地区少数Meaderies之一的故乡女王的奖励，由杰里（Jeri）和杰弗里·卡特（Geoffrey Carter）拥有蜂蜜酿酒vwin德赢ac米兰偶然。

A decade ago, when Jeri was teaching kindergarten and first grade, they started experimenting with DIY wine kits. Once they'd mastered these, a few years later, they wanted to try a batch on their own. Mississippi's hot, humid climate doesn't lend itself to growing great grapes, so Jeri knew she'd have to get creative. "I started searching the internet for ways to make wine with something other than grapes," she says. "I found a recipe to make wine with honey, so I ran out and got some."

The first batch tasted "pretty good" to the Carters, but because they hadn't tried mead previously, they didn't have anything to compare it to. A trip to the liquor store to pick up professionally made mead proved futile, as it was not available in Mississippi at the time. "That was the first time [we thought] there was an opportunity here," Jeri says.

个月的实验后,他们意识到ir first batch had actually tasted "more like moonshine than mead," says Jeri, but they've come a long way since then. Queen's Reward has already won numerous accolades, including silver in National Honey Board's米德手工艺比赛以及来自的多个青铜和银色奖项Wines of the Southregional wine competition, among others.

Officially debuting its tasting room to the public in 2018, Queen's Reward mirrors a larger trend: Meaderies are finally hitting their stride in the United States. In 2003, the country had about 60 commercial meaderies; by 2020, that number had grown to about 450, according to the美国米德制造商协会。此外，Amma声称有200多个地铁计划在未来两年内开放 - 因此，尽管女王的奖励是密西西比州的第一个，但肯定不是最后一次。

米德也称为蜂蜜葡萄酒，是一种用水，蜂蜜和vwin德赢ac米兰酵母制成的古老发酵饮料。但是，与您可能期望的相反，并非所有的米德都很甜美。就像任何酿酒师一样，杰里（Jvwin德赢ac米兰eri）说，她选择批次是甜还是干，还是介于两者之间的某个地方。她说：“我们故意在整个范围内制作蜂蜜酒，因为我们想拥有每个人都可以爱上的东西。”制作米德的过程与葡萄酒几乎相同，最终结果在11％至14％的酒精之间。vwin德赢ac米兰

例如，女王的奖励的猩红色米德（Noir Mead）融合了加利福尼亚黑比诺grapes to give it a red wine flavor, perfect for someone who enjoys a dry cabernet. Unlike red wine, however, there's no tannins in honey, so even though the wine finishes dry, it doesn't leave your mouth feeling that way, Jeri says.

In the South, many wine drinkers do prefer their wines on the sweeter side, and for those drinkers, there's the top-selling Delta Gold mead, made with honey and Riesling grape juice. This summer, it won gold at theFinger Lakes International葡vwin德赢ac米兰萄酒和烈酒竞赛。女王的奖励还会产生Delta Dry，这是一个享受干霞多丽的人通常喜欢的Delta Gold版本。

杰里说，他们不会在任何米德品种中添加人造成分。例如，巧克力覆盖的樱桃米德是用酸樱桃制成的，然后用可可笔尖稍微老化，以散发一丝黑巧克力，而季节性的冬季香料米德（非常适合节假日）的年龄为一周左右肉桂，丁香和肉豆蔻可注入舒适的味道。

作为第一个也是（目前）仅在密西西比州运营的草地，对杰里来说，皇后的奖励纳入了当地食材，这一点很重要。她回想起从越野公路旅行返回并想通过她的葡萄酒展示这一点后，她的家乡之美感到震惊。vwin德赢ac米兰她说：“当你s饮我们的米德时，你就会sip饮我们的后院。”

Finding a local honey producer turned out to be more challenging that she expected, as most beekeepers either couldn't spare enough inventory (Queen's Reward will go through 50,000 pounds of honey this year alone) or didn't have an official health department permit. Finally, she met Kip Isonhood of Yazoo Honey & Bee Farm, who today provides all honey for their mead, producing it year-round and delivering it in giant IBC totes with valves for easy pouring. Jeri says she likes how Isonhood's farm is located in the middle of the state, near Jackson, meaning the bees and honey are truly made in Mississippi.

The meadery currently ships to 40 states but doesn't distribute to out-of-state liquor stores until they can further ramp up production to meet demand in Mississippi. (They're on track to produce more than 18,000 bottles of mead this year, up from about 6,200 in 2018). That's what makes a trip to Tupelo to visit Queen's Reward tasting room more special.

在整个蜜蜂（想想酒吧和六角形侧桌子上的蜂窝状瓷砖）上，地带巧妙地向蜜蜂点点头，地带位于主麦卡洛（McCullough）大道（McCullough Boulevard）附近的仓库空间中，在野餐和野餐和野餐之间的宽敞绿色空间非常宽敞草坪游戏。只需$ 12，您就可以品尝五个不同的米德。以危险的好米德泥浆结尾，以蓝莓玛格丽塔酒，桃子或雪面等风味；并带回家蜜蜂装饰的酒杯。vwin德赢ac米兰杰里（Jeri）随时随地提供免费旅行，游客可以看到1979年的老式装瓶线，由工程师杰弗里（Geoffrey）翻新。这是这种尺寸的葡萄酒生产设施之间的罕见性vwin德赢ac米兰，但杰里说这对他们很有意义：他们可以全年制作米德，因为蜂蜜总是可用的。

在大流行期间，女王的奖励还用他们的奖励为社区生产洗手液。接下来，Carters正在努力扩展到烈酒 - 也许是蜂蜜的伏特加酒或蜂蜜奶油利口酒。

As American interest in mead grows, Jeri says she hopes more local meaderies will come along. "The more people know about mead, the better we all do," she says. "Mead has been around forever, but most people still don't know what it is."