Tonight I was at a friend's place and we tried out some of my mead, both were liked so that was good. Now the second one was a lighter coloured mead (wildflower honey) which was just recently bottled and it tasted a bit off. It seemed to taste more off on the second glass, which makes me think it wasn't bottle shock (if it was bottle shock both glasses should have tasted equally off). We were drinking out of earthenware glasses (clay) and I'm wondering if this would have effected the taste of the mead (we took longer to drink the second glass than the first). So what was up? Oxidation? Bottle Shock? Clay glasses? A combination ot them? Ken
Question about Glass and Wine
Nov 06, 2004
9 Replies
I yes, though it did not look to be all that deep of a glazing. Ken
An awful lot of pottery is not glazed with a food-grade glaze. A weak glaze can dissolve with acid foods such as wines...
So if the glaze is not food grade then I take it that it would alter the taste of the contents of the glass? Ken
Yes, you could get lead, arsenic, cadmium, all sorts of incredibly nasty chemicals in your wine. My late wife was a pottery nut, and I have discarded all her drinking vessels out of being (overly) cautious. I believe wine will also leach the lead out of 24% lead crystal decanters and glasses.
-- "I can't stand water because of the things fish do in it. Once, whilst traversing the Himalayas, we lost our corkscrew, and were compelled to live on food and water... for several days."
-W C Fields-
If the cups were not glazed proberly, that may have an effect. That is easy to test, just try it in glass.
How long was the mead bulk aged and how long has it been in bottle.
Wine can also change it's taste according to what food you have or are eating. I have tasted wine that I did not care for at all and then have a bite of salad or something and all of a suden it is quite good. I dought that it was oxidation. Most wines improve with an hour or more of breathing.
If you want to test the clay/glass issue, open another bottle and test it. Otherwise, I recomment you lay it down for 3 to 6 months and then try it again. Most of my meads are not really very good untill they are bulk aged for at least an year and in bottle for 6 months. But that may just be mine.
Ray
Well that makes me feel a little gun shy about glazed pottery or crystal glasses. What about unglazzed pottery? Ken
This mead had been in the bottle for about 2 weeks, it had been bulk aged for just over a year. I know that is a bit early to open a bottle, but I wasn't sure if pottery would effect the taste so I thought I'd ask. My friend smokes and did so while we were drink it so that might also effect the taste of the mead (wwhich I hadn't thought of). Ken
That will Þfinitely= soak up your wine and leach weird stuff into it....
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