Mission for Mead

I’ve been saving this for a special occasion, and today has been a day of glorious sunshine and a frustrating morning in the office, so off to Sussex I headed.

At Victoria station I stopped in the Cheese shop, and enquired about Mead. Apparently they normally stock a variety but had sold out, which is interesting on different levels. I’ll need to return to find out what it was, and again it’s reassuring to know others drink the stuff.

An hour and a half later I’m in Lewes killing times between trains, with a pint of Black Rat cider. Lewes is also full of posh Deli’s so I suspect there’s Mead to be found here, but my mission is clear.

Another hour later I’m at Glynde, and so begin the long march. A long march down a busy and positively lethal A27 to Middle Farm. This is not an easy place to get to without a vehicle and only the Mad and the English would attempt it. Luckily I’m both.

The sun is scorching, I’ve not got any water, I’ve chosen to wear new boots and the blisters are starting to kick in as my ankles are rubbing raw. I’m still dodging thundering Lorries and inhaling exhaust fumes but 40 minutes (2miles?) and countless false summits later I make it.

Middle Farm is pretty special. Go there.

It’s packed with people tasting ciders. They have a serious amount of ciders, allegedly 200+ and free tasting of the draft varieties. They have beers and fruit wines and a ridiculous range of Meads to choose from. Very aware that I’m going to have to carry them back down that damn road I end up buying a mere 8 bottles (more to follow).

I’ve attempted to note the different varieties of Mead they had on display but to be honest got bored writing them down, so I missed a few. I also failed to notice the 3 draft Meads behind the till until I was leaving, not to mention the range of 15-20 miniatures. Clearly I’ll be back.

However this is most of what they had:

Friary Vitners Mead (£6.82)
Friary Vitners Spiced Mead (£6.82)
Friars Choice (Brandy, Honey & Spices, £16.19)
Cornish Liquor Mead (£9.22)
Cornish Mead Wines (£8.64)
Moniak Mead (£8.66)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Apricot (7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Blackberry (7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Raspberry (£7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Ginger (£7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Heather (£7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Honey (£9.27)
Lyme Bay Traditional Mead (75cl, £7.45)
Lyme Bay Traditional Mead (375cl, £4.48)
Lyme Bay Christmas Mead (£7.45)
West Country Liqueurs- Whisky & Mead (£8.55)
Godshill Cider Company Mead (£4.81)
Norfolk Mead (£6.65)
Lindisfarne Mead (75cl, £9.34)
Lindisfarne Mead (35cl, £5.73)
Lythe Hill Hotel (Lurgashall) English Mead (£5.99)
Camelot County Products Mead (£8.09)
Sussex Boar Hunter (£14.50)
Dark Mead (£9.99)
Pernards Organic Mead (£7.03)
Carr Taylors Mead (£5.68)
Malmesbury Reserve Mead (£14.30)
Malmesbury Dry Mead (£11.46)
Lurgashall Honey Whisky Mead (50cl, £9.70)
Lurgashall English Honey Mead (50cl, £8.43)
Lurgashall Spiced Honey Mead (£8.99)
Lurgashall Celtic Honey Mead (£8.43)

So depending on how you count perhaps 33 different varieties of Mead. I got lucky only spending £70

Lurgahsall Winery

I found out more of the Lurgashall story on the United International webpage.

17th century surroundings
Nestling beneath Blackdown, the highest point in West Sussex, where Alfred Lord Tennyson once had his home, Aldworth, stands Lurgashall Winery. The Winery is housed in a complex of converted 17th and 18th Century award winning farm buildings, whose rustic nature compliments the country style products of the Winery.

Modern technology
Inside, the site is anything but rustic, being self-contained with fermentation, maturation and bottling vats, and modern, high quality equipment in a sterile bottling room. Also on site is a fully equipped laboratory for testing wine production at each stage under the careful eye of our resident Winemaker.

Visitors
The Winery attracts some 35,000 visitors annually through the shop and offers a variety of tours and tastings to clubs, associations and groups who can also visit the herb garden next to the shop that has some 55 medieval herbs on display.

Production
Lurgashall Winery began production in 1985 following the acquisition of the Malmesbury Mead and Wine Company that had 2 employees, no more than 12 customers and produced 1,000 bottles of wines and meads.

This acquisition was quickly followed by the strategic purchase of a major portion of Davis Wines, a brewer of country wines since 1855 and this purchase gave the Winery an interesting range of liqueurs that has been successfully developed over subsequent years.

Today the Winery employs 22 full and part-time staff, has more than 1,000 regular customers and produces approaching 500,000 bottles of country wines, meads and liqueurs annually.

A Taste of England
Our policy is to gather ingredients locally wherever possible and to only use real fruits, flowers, vegetables and honey to ensure that the products we sell maintain the authentic flavours of those early days - a true "Taste of England".

For more information on Lurgashall Winery please visit their website at www.lurgashall.co.uk.

22 staff and 500,000 bottles perhaps I’m not the only Mead drinker out here after all.

Malmesbury Dry Mead

I’m still slowly recovering from the hangover brought on by drinking the bottle of Malmesbury washed down by half a bottle of Harvest Gold. So from what I recall a very pleasant Mead, perhaps a bit moorish and worth another more sober assessment on a different occasion.

The bottle's very noticeable for the cool picture of drunken wretches dancing from a Maypole, well sort of a Maypole as it looks more like one of Hogarth's cartoons than the merry olde English village stereotye.

From my blurred memories, the Mead was again quite smooth, with a stronger bitter taste, and a strong pleasant aroma of honey similar to that of the Lurgashall English Mead.

However I’m still intrigued by why Malmesbury is not listed on the Lurgashall website and there seems to be a suggestion that it was once produced by the Malmesbury Mead & Wine company (from 1972) before being cruelly bought out by Lurgashall in a hostile takeover. Ok perhaps I made the cruel bit up. The bottle is moderately informative:

Mead is probably the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage. This delicious drink, made from fermented honey, has been enjoyed by everyone from the ancient Greeks to Queen Elizabeth I, who, liked her Mead infused with rosemary and thyme.

The home of Aethelstan, King of England between 925 and 940 AL, Malmesbury is the oldest borough in England. Wine was first made in the area in the 11th century when a Greek monk named Constantine planted a vineyard near Malmesbury’s famous abbey.

Since 1972 the Malmesbury Mead & Wine company has used only the finest natural ingredients to produce a range of meads. Try the other varieties in our range for a true ‘Taste of the Gods’!

This mead can be enjoyed lightly chilled, or mulled with spices in winter time.

The bottle was quite expensive from the Hive at £16.95, and cheaper online £11.25 from Beers of Europe. Equally the Hive is a cool shop so go there, and support a real local business.

A random conversation with a friend reminded me of Hive the game which Hive the shop doesn’t seem to stock. On my next trip I’ll suggest it to them, and if you’re at all into games then buy a copy.

Finally there’s also a suggestion that Malmesbury Mead also goes under the name of the Tower of London Mead, but I suspect that this is a Whiskey Mead instead of the ordinary dry version. Equally perhaps a visit to the Tower to find out how much you can charge an American tourist for a bottle.

Journey to the Hive

Good news for the blog, but bad news for my liver. I have at last stumbled upon somewhere with a decent range of Meads to drink.

The Hive Honey Shop in Wandsworth / Clapham Junction is one of those quirky independent shops that makes modern life interesting, diverse and reassuringly geeky.

They sell honey there and lots of it, along with every possible bee, honey or bees wax product imaginable. Then they sell everything conceivable associated with bees, from board games to greeting cards. Then they sell a whole load of other bee/honey products you couldn’t imagine, conceive of, or associate with bees.

You might suggest this is a theme gone too far, but I don’t believe such a thing is possible, so go there and tell me what you think.

They stock 7 varieties of Mead, along with posh wine shop style tasting tips. For one such Mead it’s suggested you try it with Stilton, which has to be worth an ambition. They offer free tasting in the shop, but I’d rather try them by the bottle.

I think all the Meads on offer originate at the Lurgashall winery, although some go under the name of ‘Malmesbury Mead’. Weirdly there seems to be no mention of the Malmesbury label of the Lurgashall website.

The 7 on sale were:

Lurgashall English Mead
Lurgashall Reserve Mead
Lurgashall Spiced Mead
Lurgashall Whiskey Mead
Malmesbury Dry Mead
Malmesbury Reserve Mead
Malmesbury Whiskey Mead

The range on the website seems to differ. On the day the state of my bank balance deterred me from buying all seven, just. So undoubtably another trip.

more to follow