A Wee Bit Different - MEAD!

I have plenty of beer blogs to come, including one with input from a mate about beers and pubs in Clitheroe in Lancashire, but before I forget, I'm posting about this mead I recently bought, Festive Season-ish and all! From Axminster in Devon, Lyme Bay Winery (website), and their 14.6% Moniack Mead. This mead was originally made in the Scottish Highlands, 7 miles west of Inverness, at Highland Winery/Moniack Castle Winery until they stopped producing it in 2012 (started in 1979). Lyme Bay Winery bought the recipe soon after, and Moniack Mead is made to the original recipe, indeed, the bottle label says "Specially selected by Highland Wineries."

The history of mead goes back thousands of years, "potentially as far back as 20,000 B.C." in Africa (Batch Mead). However, it is neither beer, cider, nor wine, and very probably created before any of them, but is simply fermented honey with water and yeast added. Where, and from which plants, the nectar is harvested by bees influences the taste of honey, consequently mead too. 

Moniack Mead is a deep golden orange colour, with a big honey aroma. It tastes of honey in a significant way, of course, but the fermentation takes out much of the sweetness of the honey, and there are hints of butterscotch and caramel too. It could replace dessert wines at meal times, but is actually much less sweet than most dessert wines as it dries out in the aftertaste and is surprisingly easy to drink, not cloying at all, and not as heavy as you may expect, although very smooth and 'clean' to drink. I like it, indeed, I'll be back for more, sláinte! 😉