Wine of the Gods /
From honey to honey mead at Mt Somers
Having a farming business that spans across various markets including sheep and beef, dairy, viticulture and even the inclusion of a few small country stores and cafés, has offered the Aclands a varied approach to farming and has reduced the reliance on one single market.
Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the triple bottom line’? This is a phrase that was first heard in the early 1990s, by John Elkington, known as a ‘world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development’. His ‘triple bottom line’ concept – People, Planet, Profit, laid the foundations for sustainable business strategies in years to come. Kate and David Acland’s viewpoint is quite similar with Place, People and Profit being the key responsibilities they push in all areas of their business, fuelled by their passion of ‘leaving our lands in better heart than when we began’.
Kate, who studied Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University, and David, a high-country farmer, both come from generations of farmers and growers with a proud history of producing quality products and produce. Today, along with their three young children (the next generation), they reside on the 10,000-acre family farm in Mid Canterbury at the foothills of the Southern Alps, Mt Somers Station. The station runs over 13,000 breeding sheep, 3000 deer, 1300 dairy cows and 200 head of beef cattle, along with over 500 hectares of native beech forest and regenerating native scrub.
Their aim to farm with minimal impact on the surrounds offers the consumer the most beautiful products, including Mt Somers Station Honey, The Station Farm
Shop Meats and Mt Somers Woollen products. The Station Farm Shop at the Staveley Store is the showroom for the family farm. Somerton’s Sparkling Mead is their most recent creation; combining the single source Mt Somers Station honey and water from the purest alpine-fed aquifers.
Taking the plunge to give something a go is never easy, and it offers its challenges, however, Kate and David take each opportunity head-on and go with their gut. With the knowledge and expertise that Kate brings from her many years working in the wine industry, the shift from just producing honey and working with bees to producing a honey mead product was seamless, and she found the process quite fascinating.
Mead is technically a wine; it is the oldest of all fermented alcoholic beverages with its popularity rising on the back of the craft beer movement, particularly in the US and the UK. It has been embraced by an increasing number of younger drinkers and craft beer fans. In ancient times it packed quite a punch, known as the ‘wine of the gods’.
The Somerton’s Sparkling Mead aims to bring something lighter and a little more refined. Using a special blend of Beechwood Honeydew and Manuka Honeys sourced entirely from the native bush on the Mid Canterbury family farm, the ingredients are simple: honey, water and yeast.
The process is pretty straightforward, and is similar to making a white wine. The raw honey is diluted with lukewarm water to give it a nice consistent blend, then it is warmed up in a large temperature-controlled wine tank where the fermentation begins, using yeast and some natural nutrients. The fermentation process takes about a week.
Once the ferment is finished the mead is chilled down to settle out any solids before it is filtered to make sure it’s crystal clear. After the filtration process the mead gets sent to a local brewery for carbonation and canning.
The initial process did take some playing around with
as honey is quite a different substance to grape juice. At one stage Kate recalls ‘a line-up of plastic 20L buckets with different concentrations of honey and yeast on the floor of the winery. The team were all sick of the sight of honey until one day we had a bit of a “eureka” moment and it all came together from there.’
For those that fancy something a little different, the sparkling mead offers a distinctive honey flavour that is naturally refreshing and crisp. The aroma is amazing, like a honey shed on a sunny day. They are sold in packs of 24 online or packs of four from local retailers in the Mid Canterbury region.
From the successful and fulfilling history that Mt Somers Station has, Kate and David are continuing to take their philosophy of farming and growing with a ‘light touch’.
Every decision is made mindfully, with a 100-year view on the farm and vineyards that they inhabit. With accreditation through Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand and striving to farm in the best way they know how, their ultimate goal of leaving our lands in better heart than when we began may just be fulfilled.
The sparkling mead offers a distinctive honey flavour that is naturally refreshing and crisp.