A SWEET sip
By Matthew Tso
Honey has been used in the production of alcohol since ancient times. While mead won’t appear on many modern drinks’ lists, a cottage industry turning honey into wine is growing.
Chemical signatures in pots from ancient China and Europe indicate those cultures were making mead-like drinks in 7000BC and 2800BC, respectively. Mark Atkin has only been fermenting mead in his Lower Hutt garage commercially since 1993, but he knows a thing or two.
Having dabbled in making fruit wine and mead as a boy, Atkin – a government policy worker – decided to start his Bemrose Estate mead business as a retirement plan.
Making mead is similar to making other wines, Atkin says. Honey replaces fruit to flavour the finished product, and acts as the sugar source. Fermentation takes about six weeks, compared with the two-to-three weeks needed to make grape wines. “Mead is made to a formula. It’s not like fruit where it differs from year to year.”
Mead takes on different attributes depending on the sort of honey and other ingredients used, and how it is processed. Bemrose’s Excaliber mead wine, which won the Champion Fruit Wine and Mead award at the 2021 New Zealand Fruit Wine and Cider Awards, is aged in oak casks, which adds a distinct flavour, as it would in wine.
A wide variety of styles can be achieved. Atkin says some of his meads take on the characteristics of chardonnays and rieslings. Other products in Bemrose’s range include mead infused with ginger or fruits, fortified port-style meads, and liqueurs blended with coffee or whisky.
The fortunes of mead makers, or mazers, are inextricably linked to the honey industry.
Mead, or honey wine, is more expensive to produce than its grape-based counterpart because of its key ingredient.
The mānuka boom several years ago, caused by offshore demand, saw prices of the dark, bitter honey skyrocket, and resulted in an increase in the cost of Atkin’s products.
“That dramatically increased the cost of making mead. Now, fortunately, they’ve shot themselves in the foot. Everyone started switching to mānuka, and they’ve flooded the market, so the price has come down.”
Atkin says while it is sought-after overseas for its supposed medicinal properties, mānuka does not make good mead on its own. He prefers a specific mix of bush honeys.
“Mānuka produces an earthy mead. The formulas I’ve developed give a more spiced, ethereal character.”
Carmen Grey, NZ Fruit Wine and Cider Makers Association secretary, says the falling mānuka prices have seen a resurgence in mead making in New Zealand. For years, the number of mead makers had been small but stable, but an enterprising new breed of mazers were bringing mead into the mainstream.
“[Mead has] never really been big in New Zealand. The resurgence is probably because the price of mānuka has fallen. It is cheap, and people are seeing what they can do with it. It is more producer driven than consumer demand.”
The likes of Beehave Craft Meadery, Lone Bee, and Borage and Bee had reached supermarket shelves, bringing lighter, sparking meads to the masses, she says.
It is popular at medieval festivals and modernday jousting tournaments, but the market for traditional mead is not massive. Atkin has a relatively small pool of regular customers, and says his products are usually bought as gifts, or by people wanting to try something different.
Despite a niche market, especially in New Zealand, Atkin has noticed more interest with the growth in popularity of fantasy TV shows and movies.
“Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings have increased interest in it.”
Atkin says sparkling meads are a good introduction to mead if they are done well but, for now, he will stick with what he knows best.