Cask and Hive Winery

Normally motorcycles and wine don't mix, but on this particular sunny day in August we headed up into Maine to help out at a checkpoint for the Iron Butt Rally - a coast to coast motorcycle trek in which some friends of ours were participating. As any excuse is a good one for visiting wineries, we decided to stop by the Cask and Hive Winery in Monmouth, Maine while we were up in the state.

I called ahead to make sure it would be open, and we drove up in the morning, through lovely late summertime landscapes. Fields were full of crops, the sun glistened off the ocean as we drove along the highway. When we got into Maine, the rolling hills and forests were quite lovely to see. We missed the turnoff, but saw the small sign as we passed and quickly turned around. A moment later we were driving into the farm area.

Cask & Hive is part of an orchard complex, and their main business seems to be the fruits and vegetables. The woman who greeted us by a pile of pumpkins took care of both these sales as well as the wine tasting. She lead us over to the winery building and unlocked it for us, leading us inside.

The tasting room had a glass partition, through which you could see the winery area itself - barrels of aging wine, carboys filled with different experiments. In one we saw blueberries, and were intrigued, but apparently that one is not quite ready yet! The three on the table were a cyser, a hard cider, and a honey wine.

We began with the Cyser. Cysers are apple wines. Called "Chickadee", this cyser is created primarily from MacIntosh and Red Delicious apples. It was fruity and tart. Some of its flavor comes from the honey, which is gathered from quite a variety of fruits and wildflowers. It has no added sulfites, and should be served around 55F. This was priced at $8.50.

Next came the Chickadee Barrel Select Maine hard cider. It's aged in once-used Bourbon casks for four months, and again uses no extra sulfites. While this was tasty, it was here we noticed the temperature variation most. The wines we were tasting had been left on the table overnight, and had warmed up in the room so we were tasting them at around 75F, I'd guess. This cider also had a label suggesting a temperature of 55F, and we imagined it would be effervescent and fresh if served at that.

The third bottle on the table merely had a tag reading "Spenser". This reminded us of our favorite Boston gumshoe, and indeed the wine was a mystery. Perhaps it was a recent experiment by the winemaker? The server did not know, so after a quick taste, we moved on to their remaining wine.

We opened up a bottle now of "Arthur's Ambrosia" - a honey wine served in a slim dessert-wine bottle for $11.50. We were both expecting something sweet, but this mead was much more dry, a chenin blanc kind of wine. It was heavy bodied and simple, but tasty. This drink has 13% alcohol and is created from Maine raspberry honey.

We thanked the hostess, and admired the lovely orchards before heading out on our way to meet up with the weary motorcyclists. A pleasant stopping point for anyone driving through the area admiring the landscape, and looking for something refreshing to drink!

NOTE: The Cask & Hive Winery has ceased to exist.

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