The A Bee Cs of Mead
Details on one of the world's most ancient alcoholic beverages
Mead is made by diluting honey with water and adding yeasts to turn sugars into alcohol. Diluting is essential, as the sugar levels in pure honey are too high to allow the yeasts to properly transform it into honey wine. Fermenting with ambient yeasts is possible, but very few experiments have been made on a commercial level.
Mead styles can vary greatly, with alcohol levels ranging anywhere from five or six percent to 15 percent or even higher (fortified meads are near 20 percent). Many styles — from light and crisp to sweet and rich — are produced, including sparklers and barrel-aged meads that spend as long as 10 or even 20 years in the cellar. Varietal meads are also gaining ground, as producers use single-flower or seasonal honeys with extremely different characters.
Picking up on longstanding traditions, many producers also flavour their meads with anything from hops to maple and apples, producing a number of sub-categories with colourful names: metheglin (spices and/or herbs), melomel (fruits or fruit juice), braggot (malt), pyment (grape juice or wine), etc.
Canadian Mead Producers
Here are a few meaderies that are creating plenty of buzz among fans across the country. *Condensed listings from the 2012 Canadian Wine Annual, on sale and available for download now.
By Rémy Charest, Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson, John Schreiner and Rick VanSickle
British Columbia
Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm & Meadery
2595 Lefeuvre Rd., Abbotsford, BC
604-856-2125
Mike Campbell produces a variety of melomels (honey-and-fruit blends), as well as metheglin (honey and spices) and both dry and sweet versions of sack and fine mead. (JS)
Coastal Black Estate Winery
2186 Endall Rd., Black Creek, BC
250-337-8325
Abel O’Brennan makes a variety of table wines, sparkling wines and fortified wines, all with fruit, and three meads with honey. (JS)
Mason Manor Mead
Unit 201, 19736 98th Ave., Langley, BC
604-513-4130
In addition to traditional mead, Steve Mason has flavoured meads (apple-cinnamon, vanilla, pineapple-habanero and pina colada). (JS)
Meadow Vista Honey Wines
3, 1352 Industrial Rd., West Kelowna, BC
250-769-2337
Seeking to differentiate herself from the Okanagan’s many grape wineries, entrepreneur Judie Barta established a meadery. (JS)
Middle Mountain Mead
3505 Euston Rd., Hornby Island, BC
250-335-1397
meadmaker@middlemountainmead.com
Helen Grond became captivated by the history and mythology surrounding this ancient beverage. The new three-litre boxed product, Magick Mead, is designed to be served with sparkling water. (JS)
Planet Bee Meadery
5011 Bella Vista Rd., Vernon, BC
250-542-8088/877-233-9675
Ed Nowek began making mead in 2004 with Martin Dournova, then the owner of U-Brew, and now Nowek’s meadmaker. (JS)
Tugwell Creek Honey Farm & Meadery
8750 West Coast Rd., Sooke, BC
250-642-1956
Tugwell Creek Farm is the original British Columbia meadery; it offers beekeeping courses and a range of honey products. (JS)
Alberta
Birds & Bees Organic Winery and Meadery
Between St. Paul and Two Hills, off Hwy. 36, Brosseau, AB
780-657-2275
Formerly known as En Santé. Xina Chrapko makes a variety of fruit wines as well as a mead. As the name implies, everything here is organic. (BMS)
Chinook Arch Meadery
Box 12, Site 14, RR #1, Okotoks, AB
403-995-08
Proprietors Art and Cherie Andrews started making mead in 2007. They use buckwheat and clover honeys in their meads, which now include honey wines blended with alfalfa, blackcurrants and cherries, in both dry and sweet styles. (BMS)
Fallentimber Meadery
5543 Twp. Rd. 302, Water Valley, AB
403-637-2667/403-650-9980
As well as dry, traditional and sweet meads, there’s an oaked traditional mead (made with oak chips), the sack mead (a strong, sweet mead) and a cinnamon-infused mead. (BMS)
Ontario
Rosewood Estates Winery and Meadery
4352 Mountainview Rd., Beamsville, ON
866-633-3248/905-563-4383
Combining their deep family roots in beekeeping and their love for wine, the Roman family opened Rosewood as the first winery and meadery in Niagara in 2008. (RVS)
Québec Clos des Brumes
824, rang 5, La Présentation, QC
450-796-3504
One of the pioneers of mead in Québec, Clos des Brumes is also one of the best. Five years is the minimum aging for the meads: the Duché Vieux Chêne was bottled after 21 years. (RC)
Ferme Apicole Desrochers
113, rang 2 Gravel, Ferme-Neuve, QC
819-587-4825
vindemiel.desrochersd@gmail.com
Naline Desrochers and Géraud Bonnet run a line of organic gems such as the Cuvée de la Diable, aged 48 months in oak barrels, under veil, like a vin jaune of Jura made in France. (RC)
Le Petit Jardin de l’Abeille
1059, Dimock Creek, Maria, QC
418-759-3027
Having produced honey since 1977, John Forest decided to turn to mead in 1994, winning considerable attention with his organiccertified cuvées. All are organic. (RC)
Photo by Erin Burns
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