Meads of New Zealand
Created | Updated Mar 13, 2004
What is Mead?
In short, a wine made of honey.
There are also variants on the theme, such as mead liqueurs (mead with brandy or whisky added), melomels (meads with fruit), and metheglins (spiced mead).
New Zealand is a country that exports a lot of fruits, meats, and honey. You will find their apples as far away as Ullapool in Scotland, this, the author knows for a fact. (It was a bag of Braeburns, and I was amused at how far I had to travel to get a good apple, but I digress.)
In any case, it is a good place for the making of mead, and some people have done so.
Mead/Mjöd is a drink that comes from the historic places of the Celtic and the Norse.
New Zealand is really quite far away from the centres of those cultures!
But there is a reasonable bit of a niche market - if you know where to look.
Honey retailers have a problem with getting a license to sell alcohol on the premises. (it's a "percentage of sale" thing.)
Virtually none of the major liquor chains stock any mead.
But there are some retailers that specialise in the selling of mead, and the majority of those can be found as you follow State Highway 1 in the North Island.
There is an excellent Honey Centre, north, just before Taupo, along the Huka Falls loop. And the Honey Hive (Lindale Centre, Paraparaumu), and a couple of other roadside advertised places, between Levin and Wellington.
N.Z.'s largest city Auckland - is a veritable desert, despite its population, when it comes to finding the stuff, alas.
Little is known too, about the production of South Island meads - not often available in the North Island. This needs to be rectified, by the author, who will no doubt enjoy such research.
Recommendations on meads to look out for...
Bemrose Estate's Wintermede (Toppest of the top, voted a gold medal winner by local wine producers.)
Cottage Wines Boysenberry Mead (an excellent melomel.)
First Knight Mead Liqueur (A mead with brandy and little flakes of gold!)
Other Honey Alcohols recommended -
Bees Nees Cream liqueur... like Baileys, but honeyesque!
Prenzel's Honey Buzz. It is not a true mead, in that the honey is not brewed first, but its combination of Borage (a wildflower) Honey and Oak-aged Grape Brandy, makes it the most delicious. (A personal opinion, validated by many others who have tasted it!) Liquid gold!
It is also very hard to get hold of.
There are many more meads and mead variants to be found here - many have been sampled prior to making this report, both commercial and non, and many are very good, if a little hard to find - the above recommendations are only for the sake of brevity.
By the way, if honey is your thing, be aware that New Zealand is one of those paranoid places, with regard to what you bring here, fruit and honey wise. Honey is at the top of their "don't bring it in" products.
Anyway, now you know a bit more than you did before, should you ever reach these shores (and be fond of mead).
Cheers, Slainté, and Skaal!
In short, a wine made of honey.
There are also variants on the theme, such as mead liqueurs (mead with brandy or whisky added), melomels (meads with fruit), and metheglins (spiced mead).
New Zealand is a country that exports a lot of fruits, meats, and honey. You will find their apples as far away as Ullapool in Scotland, this, the author knows for a fact. (It was a bag of Braeburns, and I was amused at how far I had to travel to get a good apple, but I digress.)
In any case, it is a good place for the making of mead, and some people have done so.
Mead/Mjöd is a drink that comes from the historic places of the Celtic and the Norse.
New Zealand is really quite far away from the centres of those cultures!
But there is a reasonable bit of a niche market - if you know where to look.
Honey retailers have a problem with getting a license to sell alcohol on the premises. (it's a "percentage of sale" thing.)
Virtually none of the major liquor chains stock any mead.
But there are some retailers that specialise in the selling of mead, and the majority of those can be found as you follow State Highway 1 in the North Island.
There is an excellent Honey Centre, north, just before Taupo, along the Huka Falls loop. And the Honey Hive (Lindale Centre, Paraparaumu), and a couple of other roadside advertised places, between Levin and Wellington.
N.Z.'s largest city Auckland - is a veritable desert, despite its population, when it comes to finding the stuff, alas.
Little is known too, about the production of South Island meads - not often available in the North Island. This needs to be rectified, by the author, who will no doubt enjoy such research.
Recommendations on meads to look out for...
Bemrose Estate's Wintermede (Toppest of the top, voted a gold medal winner by local wine producers.)
Cottage Wines Boysenberry Mead (an excellent melomel.)
First Knight Mead Liqueur (A mead with brandy and little flakes of gold!)
Other Honey Alcohols recommended -
Bees Nees Cream liqueur... like Baileys, but honeyesque!
Prenzel's Honey Buzz. It is not a true mead, in that the honey is not brewed first, but its combination of Borage (a wildflower) Honey and Oak-aged Grape Brandy, makes it the most delicious. (A personal opinion, validated by many others who have tasted it!) Liquid gold!
It is also very hard to get hold of.
There are many more meads and mead variants to be found here - many have been sampled prior to making this report, both commercial and non, and many are very good, if a little hard to find - the above recommendations are only for the sake of brevity.
By the way, if honey is your thing, be aware that New Zealand is one of those paranoid places, with regard to what you bring here, fruit and honey wise. Honey is at the top of their "don't bring it in" products.
Anyway, now you know a bit more than you did before, should you ever reach these shores (and be fond of mead).
Cheers, Slainté, and Skaal!
