Winery/Meaderies in Wash. State

[Suzy_Q_Brewmistres]

I've only had one professionaly made Mead...

Bonair, Summer Solsice Mead
Honey Wine with Cherry Juice Added
by... Bonair Winery
500 S. Bonair Rd., Zillah, WA
http://bonairwine.com/

Looking at their site.. they have two meads...

Sweet Mead: And how sweet it is. This mead is made from pure fireweed honey, the whitest honey in the world. It has the fragrance of honeysuckle. We sweetened it a little with snowberry honey for a real honey-lovers treat. Won't last long it is so good. 750 ml bottle. $ 14.99.

Winter Solstice Mead: Same as above, but with cinnamon and clove. Nuke a mug in the microwave and serve hot on those cold, dreary days. 750 ml bottle. $ 14.99.

I'm planning on dragging my hubby up their this weekend to buy some bottles for Christmas Gifts.

:-* Suzy Q, Brewmistress

 

[Jmattioli]

Sweet Mead: And how sweet it is. This mead is made from pure fireweed honey, the whitest honey in the world.

That's a new one. Whitest honey in the world! Not according to Ken Schramms book. Fireweed is a #4 on the color scale which is light but there are quite a few lighter than that.
Joe

 

[Suzy_Q_Brewmistres]

I copied & pasted the two mead infos from their website.. "fireweed the whitest honey" not my words. :-/

We went up to the Winery yesterday... and bought a case of mead... 6 bottles of both. Christmas gifts.... We were given a taste... and they were dryer than I would like I think... I'm aiming for sweeter. But the Winter Solstice was quite nice.

:-* Suzy Q, Brewmistress

 

[Suzy_Q_Brewmistres]

Hi Guys....
Took a bottle to Thanksgiving Dinner... shared it with the family. It was a hit... everyone liked it. I gave a bottle to the host and sent a couple bottles with the sister in law.
One advice the ladie at the Winery made... was to avoid using our local honey. Our valley is a farming community and we have lots of crops. One of the popular crops is Mint... so the bees like the mint and their honey has a tendancy to have a slight mint flavor. She says her first year of mead.. the batches had a strong mint flavor... like listerine.
We have an apiary about an hour & half away... I've not visited it yet... so I'm just using honey from Costco. I'm sure it's processed almost to death.. but it will do for the simple meads I'm playing with now.

:-* Suzy Q, Brewmistress

 

[Oskaar]

Oh Suzy Q . . .

Sorry CCR was one of my first favorite bands!

Anyhow, the local minty honey would make a great base for a lavender mead. You can mix it down with your Costco Honey, until you have a hint to a subtle mint flavor in your must.

Mint and lavender go together pretty well. I've done it twice in the past and it really was a tastey and nicely balanced mead.

Drat . . . now I have to go into the mead archives again!

Oskaar

 

[Suzy_Q_Brewmistres]

Thanks Oskaar.... Mint & Lavender? sounds interesting...
When I get a little more proficient with my meadering I'll experiment a bit more.

:-* Suzy Q, Brewmistress