About Mead
Mead, or wine made from honey, is mankind's oldest fermented beverage. If you've never had a glass of mead before, you're in for a pleasant experience. Mead is available from dry to sweet and in many different flavors, all depending on the vintner's imagination. Our goal is to provide a fresh, well balanced and enjoyable glass of wine that accentuates the floral character of the honey with a hint of underlying sweetness.
The collection of honey from a wild hive almost certainly predates the cultivation of grapes or grains. It's not hard to imagine our early ancestors discovering the entrance to a beehive in some ancient tree and becoming curious about the determination and speed which the workers sallied forth. Our innate drive to know more would have led us to the honey, the golden reward of the bees' labor. Stored in open containers, or perhaps mixed with water to extend its bounty, the honey would naturally ferment and give its drinker internal warmth and a sense of well being.
Modern day fermentation practices give us more control over the final product and its taste profile. Honey is diluted with water and inoculated with a special strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast responsible for the conversion of sugar to alcohol. Next, the mead-maker decides on the final level of sweetness, whether to compound with other fruit or spices and whether to make a still wine or one that is carbonated.
All of this is possible thanks to the honeybee. Consider the following facts:
- Honeybees visit about 1,500,000 flowers to make one bottle of mead.
- To produce the amount of honey in one bottle of mead, a bee travels an average of 20,000 trips to and from the hive, a distance equal to 1.5 times around the earth.
- One colony of bees contains 40,000 to 60,000 individuals and can produce enough honey for about 90 bottles of mead.
Try a glass of mead today!
