Rachel Loew Lipman was only 12 years old when she started working in her family’s honey wine (aka mead) business, which dates back over 156 years. The fifth-generation winemaker and general manager of Loew Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland, is following in the footsteps of her industrious great-great grandmother, Malka Löew, who started her first honey winery in 1870 in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine). Had Malka’s grandson, Wolf Loew, the cofounder of Loew Vineyards, perished in the Holocaust, the family business would have ceased to exist. Instead, it was reestablished in America and now comprises a sprawling 37 acres, includes a few acres of grapes, some apple trees, a flower farm, and an apiary. It even sells its own pure, raw wildflower honey. Wolf referred to the vineyard as his “slice of heaven.” Rachel now runs the winery and business operations with her grandmother Lois and her partner, Sam Adler.
The Serendipitous Story
Rachel begins her story like this: “The
year 1870 is a very significant date in my family, because the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, which ruled that area at the time, was led by the Austrian emperor,
Franz Joseph I, who favored the Jews. He had just become king of Hungary in
1867 and divided his empire into the Dual Monarchy, in which Austria and
Hungary coexisted as equal partners. Before that, Jews were not given civil
rights to own 100 percent of their own businesses or to engage in commerce outside
their own communities. Three years later, my great-great grandmother built a
honey winery in Poland.
“She married my great-great
grandfather, Meilech, who had his own honey winery. They had 10 sons and two
daughters who were all involved in the honey wine business. As their family
grew, so did their mead enterprises. By 1930, the Löw family owned over six different
prominent meaderies. One of the sons, Eisig Löw, established his meadery in Lvov,
Poland; where he started the “first national meadery and beeswax production
facility.” He and his wife Klara had three sons: Abraham, Elimeilech, and my
grandfather, Wolf. Of the 15 mead producers in Lwów, six of them were owned by
my family. Unfortunately, because of the Holocaust and the Soviet occupation,
this entire industry disappeared. When the Soviets occupied Poland post-WW II,
the national drink of Poland went from mead to vodka.
“In the late 1930s and 1940s, all the
Löws were lost except for Wolf, who was only 15 when the war started. He
survived by hiding in a woman’s home, then escaping and crossing the Tatra
mountains into Hungary, where he joined the underground resistance. Eventually,
while on a mission sent by the underground headquarters, he was captured by the
Hungarian gendarmes. Initially, they thought he was a spy because he spoke
multiple languages. After interrogation, he was imprisoned in the Budapest political
prison at the same time as Chana Senesh. A few weeks later, he was transported
to Auschwitz. Five months later, he was transported to Flossenburg concentration
camp and subsequently walked in one of the last death marches. After being
liberated by the 99th Division of the U.S. Army and restoring
himself and his health, he finally made his way to the United States. He was
one of three cousins to survive the horrors of the war.”
From Lviv to Mt. Airy
Wolf Loew ended up meeting and
marrying Rachel’s grandmother, Lois, in Indianapolis. There, he started
homebrewing wine, mead, and beer, but that wasn’t enough for him. In
anticipation of retiring from the FDA, after 30 years of working there as an
electrical engineer, Wolf and Lois purchased the family’s present 37-acre
location on Liberty Road, on the Frederick County side, in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Together,
the couple was able to create a production that reconnected her grandfather to
his family’s roots. They made mead in an old traditional method, which was
probably new in America back then. Heating up the honeys together created a
product that was very different from the two most popular forms of mead.
Roll Out the Barrels
To those not familiar with mead, it
is a fermented drink made from honey, and the alcohol content is comparable to
many grape wines. However, mead can be as low in alcohol content as beer. “When
you ferment anything, you can make it as dry or sweet as you would like,” said
Rachel. Back in the day, her Polish ancestors created honey wines that were
dry, semi-sweet, and sweet. “We make mead in an old ‘traditional’ method – just
honey and water – the same way my family did back in Poland – with different
equipment, of course, but the same recipe. It took several years for my
grandfather to recreate the recipe. He always said that he was taunted by the
sweet aroma of mead fermenting in barrels. It is honestly one of the most
beautiful aromas in the world. It’s a really nostalgic product.
“I’m the oldest of the
grandchildren,” shares Rachel, “and I think that is why I got involved. I ended
up spending a lot of time with my grandparents. The night before Passover and
the night before Thanksgiving, I would help my grandmother cook. After that, my
grandfather would take me down to the winery to teach me about the chemistry of
wine. Presently, my whole family is involved in various ways, whether they serve
on an advisory board or they work on the analytics or design of the labels. In
fact, the label that my cousin Eliana designed for our just-released Mechaya mead
is a modernized version of the original label that was on my great-great
grandmother’s mead in 1870!”
The Mead Industry Today
Presently, there are hundreds of
few mead makers. In fact, there has been a “boom” of meaderies opening over the
past 10 to 15 years, one of them in northern Poland. “The Polish owner reached
out to me,” notes Rachel, “and said, ‘Your family was part of developing the
old textbooks in the 1800s and 1900s for how to make mead, and we’re now trying
to recreate those recipes that were established by the Jewish community back at
that time.’”
With no vineyards (unlike in Hungary,
Austria, and Germany), there wasn’t any grape wine production, and Poland’s
main alcoholic beverages were vodka, mead, and beer. “Most of the pre-WWII mead
producers in Poland were Jewish,” explains Rachel. “Of the 15 producers of mead
in Lviv, six of them were owned by my family. That’s why it’s so surprising
that mead hasn’t existed in the Jewish market, identified as a Jewish product.”
Wolf Loew, z”l, is no doubt schepping
nachas from above. On August 9, there was a release party at Loew
Vineyards for its newly kosher Star-K-certified cyser, Mechaya. Unlike standard
mead, which is made with honey and water, cyser uses apple juice instead of
water, giving it a unique balance of sweetness and acidity. It was originally
produced years ago in honor of Rosh Hashanah, because it pairs apples and
honey. The alcohol content is 12.9%, as you would find in wine. This recipe is
fermented in a stainless-steel tank and aged for four months.
In January, Loew Vineyards plans to
add either a semi-sweet or sweet mead to its kosher mead selection. “That style
of mead is a traditional Polish style of making mead from the 1800s,” remarks
Rachel. “The honey is fermented and barrel-aged for a whole year.”
Rachel estimates there are four
mead producers in Maryland, in contrast to the Midwest, where mead is popular as
an alternative form of alcohol because no grapes grow there. “I think we are
probably one of only three or four producers of mead in the U.S. who are
Jewish, and I believe we are the only one in the US that uses this specific old
school Polish method.”
What’s the Buzz?
Loew Vineyards’ mead is sourced from
Maryland-harvested honey. Its first all-estate mead (sourced exclusively from
the honey harvested on its property) will be released in January. It will be
called “Meilech,” after Rachel’s great-great grandfather.
Concludes Rachel, “When you put on
a bee suit and go into the apiary and hear the bees buzzing and watch them
work, it’s a pretty amazing experience. You would think that it would be nerve
wracking with all the bees buzzing around you, but for some reason, I find it
calming…I’m really excited about Mechaya. When I first connected with Rabbi
Tzvi Rosen of Star-K Certification, about five years ago, it was just an idea. The
fact that we started the project last year is an indication of all the thought
and care that went into it. Our family is very excited about it – I am, too!”
To see the new Mechaya mead, visit
the Loew Vineyards website, bit.ly/star-kmechaya.
