Mead is made from the fermentation of honey and water. Honey is flower nectar collected by domesticated honeybees (apis mellifera). Honey is a remarkable product which contains a complex mixture of sugars, enzymes, proteins, organic compounds and trace minerals. These compounds give honey its distinctive flavor and aromas. These carry over into mead production and lend a distinctive flavor to the finished mead.
Mead was the first fermented beverage enjoyed by modern mankind. Mead first showed up as a beverage almost 10,000 years ago. It is a deep part of human history and a link to our forefathers. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates used mead as a tonic. Vikings believed that honey and mead had magical properties and were a gift from the heavens (Valhalla). In Celtic tradition, no wedding was complete without a mead toast to the young couple… for a sweet marriage. It has been claimed that the word honeymoon comes from a tradition where a newly married couple drank mead for a full moon to ensure a long life and a happy marriage. We find it an intriguing and historical product which links us to human history.
Meads at Rosewood are made into several differnet styles, some are straight celtic style meads, others are sweeter, and some have sat in seasoned french oak barrels for 12-24+ months. Pyments are a new and exciting addition to the Rosewood Mead line-up; combining pinot noir or Gewürztraminer juice with honey, to sweeten the fermentation. These ‘pyments’ produce unique, highly aromatic and smooth wines of interesting complexity – sharing traits from both the grape juice and honey. Both Mead Noir and Mead Blanc have won awards at an international mead competition, capturing silver and gold, respectively, at the Mazer Cup in Colorado, US.
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