In the Background 

Spring 2026 release 

15%

Wine Details 

This is our second attempt at a dry Malbec wine. We do add some honey in primary to boost the abv and add another element to the flavor profile. 

Also we double barrel aged this. The first barrel was a Wilderness Trail Bourbon barrel.  We aged it in that barrel for a few months and then when the opportunity came to put this into a freshly dumped mead barrel, we sent it.  The mead was a Mesquite honey traditional. It sat in the mead barrel for close to 10 months. 

All in all the wine is approximately 15 months old. 

The yeast we used was EC1118  

Karl’s tasting notes. 

BA In The Background

A new one for us, a non-mead! Don’t check out now, however, it’s still mead adjacent, honest! Many moons ago we here at the meadery decided to make a Malbec wine. Since then, this brew existed in the background of our Tasting Room, providing an interesting breath of air for our mead-drinkers. Since then, however, this bottle had been waiting. Further in the background this wine was barrel aging and indeed became mead-adjacent thanks to one formerly mentioned barrel,  which was one of our own mead barrels! Needless to say, we need to button up our jackets for this Tasting. Let’s begin!

Having some experience with this Malbec, as it’s been gracing our menu as of scribing this, we now prepare for a different take on the nose. Initial scents from this wine can give vaguely fruity, tannic notes of a deep red. It’s a flat, nearly sweet nose, but this is not its true form! You see, the more you open this mead barrel-aged wine up, the more of the profile breathes to life! After a brief rotation I’m already getting more of the Malbec grape profiles in the nose, sweetness, fruity, and a backing of tannins that are revealed now to be the barrels AND the subtle honey sweetness from the mead’s ghost within. Delight in this ever-changing profile that has a lot to give, with just a swish and flick!

As for the taste, the same rule applies. The initial sip is dry, fruity and deep in subtle but flat tannins. Smooth but simple. Yet, when you give this wine some oxygen it breathes more and more into the profile. Flatness turns into sweeter honey and a caramel whiskey barrel. The fruit notes collapse into a pleasant expression of fruit undertone that gives way to the deeper barrel profiles. Many could dismiss Maniacal’s take on wine at a first sip. An enjoyer of the drier (in terms of mead dryness in mind) and the enjoyer of building flavor notes will fall in love with this meadery’s wine.