We opened this @schrammsmead masterpiece last night on @maltcoutureddb with @theothermumford and it floored us all. Some beverages are so crushingly good that you are worse off having drank them. Every time I try this I forget how layered the fruit profile is, the long preserves drag, that sticky marmalade and floral closer. It’s more balanced than most god tier Napa Cabs and pushes the honey game to its logical peak. Sometimes when you see a spicy 4.9 on Untappd it’s like “yeah of course people dropping $192 on this 12oz will validate the purchase with that score.” But it isn’t recursive, this can command that price as a function of what it is, not what it seeks to convey. Very few products occupy this space and it’s aggravating how arresting this melomel is because it commands attention.

There’s no casual HOD sesh, and it feels tacky and decadent for consumption to be the event in itself. Some Condé Nast terminus shit, laser etched decanters talking about which cards have the best point perks. I’m a trash human who watches Bachelor in Paradise, so it’s good to occasionally have a sip of sublimity. Then back to Totino’s pizza rolls and Terrace House. Balance achieved through immoderation, the Aristotelian mead.