A Polish present

Last week, my husband came home of work with a nice bottle of red wine.
It was a present from his Polish colleague , who borrowed something from us. His colleague knew that we are winelovers, so the present was very welcome.
My husband put the bottle in the kitchen and mubled something of I don't know what it is and honey.
The bottle had a nice label and 16 % of alcohol, so it should be a great wine.

Last evening, we had a nice meal. We thought it was a great opportunity to drink the Polish wine.
We opened the bottle with care and let the wine come to room temperature. We were curious about the taste.
After an hour we poured the wine into the glasses.
The color was light red, not the color I expected.
And also the smell was strange.
Finally we took a sip. What a surprise....it tasted very sweet and the alcohol was very very strong. It did not taste like red wine at all. How disappointed. After one sip we decided not to drink this wine anymore.
So we quickly opened another bottle of our own wine stock with a nice taste. How delicious.

This morning, I googled the name on the label on the internet. Dwojniak is a mead or honeywine. It is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices and grains or hops.
The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% to more than 20 %.

The Polish mead are traditionally and legally classified in 4 grades

Czworniak: 1 part of honey, 3 parts of water
Trojniak: 1 part of honey, 2 parts of water
Dwojniak: 1 part of honey, 1 part of water
Potorak: 1 part of honey, 0.5 parts of water

The lower the total numbers of parts, the stronger, sweeter and more expensive the mead.

Our bottle had two parts, so that means sweet and strong. The minimun ageing time was 2 years.

So dear colleague, thanks for your present.

Next time you lend something to a colleague, lend it to the right one. An Italian, South African, Frenchman, Australian or Chilean for example.

No more Polish wine for me