Reintroducing Mead Wine to a Modern Audience

It’s time to take your chalice and toast the ancient, divine drink, mead wine. What’s that you say?

Mead is among the oldest fermented beverages known to man. This honey-based drink is mentioned in records dating back to 2000 BC, and because its fermentation process can occur naturally, some suggest the Chinese drank it even earlier.

Basic mead is very simple: honey, water, and yeast. So, the beverage can ferment naturally without help from humans. But you would have to be pretty desperate to drink that concoction. Mead was the preferred beverage of the ancient Greeks. Folklore raised its perception of mead as a heroic or divine drink (at least according to the Danish warriors in the poem Beowulf). It fell out of favor with the advent of other options, spurred on by improved fermentation processes.

However, lovers of mead, rejoice! The growth of the winemaking industry in the United States has also created interest in mead once again. Wisconsin is home to three wineries (please let me know if I missed some) whose main product is mead. Several others also make mead products.

Different Mead Wine Styles

More than one style of mead exists. The traditional mead, mentioned previously, is very simple, made from honey, water, and yeast.  Cyser typically is mead with apple juice or cider. Melomel adds other fruits to the mead. Metheglin employs spices in the mead, and Pyment is mead combined with grapes.

Where to Find Mead Wine

Wisconsin wineries offer many varieties of mead that fit the styles of those listed but may not state it in the product name. If you’re feeling divine or heroic, you could be someone who enjoys a good chalice of mead. While this will be updated, the three wineries specializing in mead are Mead King in Rock Springs, Rushford Meadery & Winery just outside Omro, and White Winter Winery in Iron River (Wisconsin). Several other wineries do offer mead products. Why not check one out today?