From Generation to Generation: Preserving Memory Through Mead

When my grandfather shared his Holocaust survival story and the story of his life in Europe, he spoke so poignantly. He narrated each memory of family and close friends so well that they came to life. I felt like I knew them.

I didn’t know it when we started producing the tribute series in 2021, but creating these meads became one way of sharing his story, thus keeping my grandfather’s memory and his family member’s memory alive.

At Loew Vineyards, we make three different types of meads. Traditional meads (produced in the Polish style), pyments (meads fermented with grapes), and cysers (meads fermented with apple cider).

In the late spring 2021, I was touring around in an ATV with Dave, a vineyard/winery owner in Western Maryland who we purchase grapes from. Dave and I chatted about my fruit commitment for the upcoming harvest while we made our way to his Muscat Canelli block. It is a small parcel, so Dave doesn’t sell Muscat to outside producers. I mentioned that Muscat Canelli would work beautifully as a mead. Nothing initially came from our conversation. As we drove away from the Muscat block I suddenly began reminiscing about my grandfather’s mother, Klara. I envisioned how Klara looked and how her personality resembled the variety. I had only learned about Klara, who tragically was murdered in the Holocaust, from the stories my grandfather shared with me and my family. 

Some time after that visit I was able to convince Dave to let me work with a small amount of Muscat Canelli for the 2021 harvest.

For the next few months before harvest, I thought about Klara and the type of honey I would need in order to create the perfect mead in her honor. One day, a local beekeeper visited our winery and asked me if I had interest in using the honey from his property in my meads. I said, “Sure. But, I have to try it first.” I did not want to commit to using buckets of honey without knowing the quality. A few weeks later the beekeeper brought me two small jars of the lightest honey I had ever seen. The honey tasted beautiful and elegant, just like Klara’s personality. Later that day I brought the jars to my grandfather for him to try. As soon as he tasted the honey his next words were, “get all of it.”

I hadn’t yet told my grandfather my plan to name this mead after his mother, Klara—the person he had loved most in the world. It was not until the day I made it that I told him. 

To make this mead even more special, I asked my cousins Claire (Klara’s namesake) and Eliana to help me make this mead. While we were stirring and heating the honey using our secret family recipe, we chatted about Klara and her place in our family’s unique history. As we finished for the day we walked up to the house to see my grandfather standing in the driveway. He had a big smile on his face. “How was it?” he asked my cousins, as they approached after a long day of working in the winery and learning about our family’s deep-rooted tradition. It is always special when we make mead—after all, my family has one of the longest tenures of mead production in the world. It is a legacy that my great-great grandmother first established in Lwow, Poland over 150 years ago. This was the perfect time to reveal to my grandfather my intentions to name the mead Klara. So, I asked him, “I know I’ve never met your mother, but for some reason this mead reminds me of her. Would it be okay if we named the mead Klara, after your mother?”

My grandfather stood there, shocked. He put his hands in his pockets and swayed back ever so slightly. He looked down, and then up at me and grinned, “I think she would be thrilled.”

Since 2021, we have created many more award-winning and internationally recognized tributes to honor my grandfather and his late family members. My grandfather was the sole survivor of the Holocaust from his immediate family. He was one of three to have survived out of his vast extended family.

I am so proud to announce that over the next two months we will be able to release and share with you seven different meads that are named after my grandfather and his family members. On the label of each of these meads you will find a QR code that shares information about the mead itself and also tells the story of the person was that the mead is named after through the lens of my grandfather’s testimony.

I’m looking forward to you meeting each of the members of the Löw family.