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Age of Commercial Mead

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Norskersword

NewBee
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May 19, 2004
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I've been wondering about this for some time and decided to research into it. I've been wondering if commercial meaderies send their meads out right after production or if they age it first like some wineries do. I decided to email this question to a couple wineries.

Question: Hello I was just wondering, do you age your mead before shipping it? I was just wondering because I was thinking about ordering your mead and I'm wondering if I should age it when I get it.

Rabbit's Foot Meadery
Mike Faul himself responded to this question:

"Oh no. It comes to you ready to drink. Now that said, you can age it longer and it will get better. Especially the Pear Mead and most positivley the Mead of Poetry.

Otherwise you can drink today. I believe the current offerings bottled are 3-4 years old."

Cheers to Mike and his meadery for taking so much pride in their products!

Bergetto Winery (Makers of Chaucers)
"The shelf life of our Mead after you receive it should be between 6-mos and 1 year. No longer."

For some time I've been thinking that some places have had their mead sitting around longer and that if you buy it from some stores, it is too young to drink, while with others it is just right. Now I realize that if 6 months is the youngest I will be able to buy their mead, that means for Chaucers it takes roughly a year or so, from fermentation to your wine glass, to be good.

White Winter Winery
No response. This is actually the second time I sent them this question with no response. Seems their email account is always full.
 
If I recall correctly, Redstone's nectars and meads are bottled at 9 months, and the reserve is bottled at 18. The nectar that I've had most definitely would benefit from more aging. The reserve was great.
 
When I spoke to Mike at Chaucer's (Bargetto) he told me that they shoot for a particular Brix reading corresponding to a dry level mead. They then backsweeten, stabilize and bottle.

Oskaar
 
If I recall correctly, Redstone's nectars and meads are bottled at 9 months, and the reserve is bottled at 18. The nectar that I've had most definitely would benefit from more aging. The reserve was great.
Click to expand...


I was just there for a tour in July. I believe you are correct. And yes, the reserve was aboslutely delicious!
 
Norskersword said:
I've been wondering about this for some time and decided to research into it. I've been wondering if commercial meaderies send their meads out right after production or if they age it first like some wineries do. I decided to email this question to a couple wineries.
Click to expand...

We just found a Polish mead from a local liquor store (Binny's) that's a 25 year old mead.

W00t!

Bella
 
Bella,

Where are you that you found Jadwiga? (I'm making a huge assumption here) Their 25 year mead is almost impossible to find anymore!

I'm so jealous! ;D

My brother gave me a bottle a year ago. I'd have kept it if I'd known that he wouldn't be able to find any more.
 
I'd love to try those Polish meads, but honeywine.com does not list VA as a state they ship to. I just sent them email asking about it.

VA changed the state law nearly a year ago and it is now legal to ship here. NC as well, which I see that honeywine.com does not ship to.

For those of you in VA or NC, please write honeywine.com and maybe we can get them to get their act together! And if they are missing any other states, I apologize for not noticing.


Cheers,
Jay
 
I believe the winery would have to purchase a permit to ship to VA or NC. VA costs $50 annually and NC charges $100 annually if my research is correct. I know Mike Faul of Rabbit's Foot Meadery has said it was not easy to get the NC permit.

Maybe if enough of us send an inquiry to Honeywine.com than it will be worth it to them to get the permits!
 
In Ohio the purchaser has to get the permit. It's really a dumb law. Sort of like the days of prohibition.
 
David Baldwin said:
Bella,

Where are you that you found Jadwiga? (I'm making a huge assumption here) Their 25 year mead is almost impossible to find anymore!

I'm so jealous! ;D

My brother gave me a bottle a year ago. I'd have kept it if I'd known that he wouldn't be able to find any more.
Click to expand...

Hi David,

Our local Binny's sells it for $25 a bottle. We're in the Chicagoland suburbs near Naperville.

Is it 25 years old? It is called Jadwiga, but the bottle label says 6 years whereas the Binny's info said 25. We're going to be opening it tomorrow!

Bella
 
Bella,

Jadwiga USED to be aged 25 years. It's now only aged 6. I was amazed that you found a stash of the 25 year old Jadwiga. If you actually had a source for it, I was going to take a road trip!

Unfortunately Michigan liquor laws are still stone age and reflect their prohibition roots. Unless the supplier gets permits to import it, AND a wholesale distributor agrees to carry the product, there is no way to get it here. Michigan does not allow for direct shipment to the consumer.

The flip side of that, is that wineries (future meaderies - hint hint ScottS) in Michigan can sell to wholesalers, retailers, or directly to the consumer (in state).

However, I'm close enough to Chicago to make the occasional trip around the "pond". After all, there's Medieval Times and IKEA in the Chicago area... ;D
 
David Baldwin said:
Bella,

Jadwiga USED to be aged 25 years. It's now only aged 6. I was amazed that you found a stash of the 25 year old Jadwiga. If you actually had a source for it, I was going to take a road trip!
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I'm going to guess the info on the bottom of the bottle (6 years) is more accurate than the Binny's label. I wonder why the difference in info tho, that bothers me. I'm sure it's going to be good either way so ...

Bella
 
I was wondering how you liked your Jadwiga, Bella. I think it's delicious. Strong, thick and rich, clear as a bell, and sweet sweet sweet. Very complex flavors.

I did get quite an eye-opening however when I purchased it online. It was sold to me guaranteed by personal email as 25 year old mead, and arrived as 6 year old mead with a Stawski Distributors label on the bottom. It also is described as a 2:1 mixture not a 3:1. On some of the bottles, half the label had been badly scratched off in an attempt to disguise the "aged 6 years" portion. Very disappointing.

There's more to the story but I think I'll just let it go at that.
 
May be a good idea to report them to your local postmaster since they're engaged in mail fraud (felony if I remember right). They're giving a bad name (Stawski) to mead and mead producers. They must be stopped and publicly punished . . .

I say start with the stocks and make them listen to Ashley Simpson. Would that be classified as cruel and unusual??

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
Stawski is not the problem. Their labels have all the correct information, and they were very helpful. Stawski is only the importer and distributor who sells to the retailers. Stawski does not sell directly to the public.
 
So you're saying Stawski is not the problem? LOL

I glossed over the "purchased it online" part. Did you contact the people that sold it to you?
 
I would skip the stocks and go straight to the rack. And for some extra punishment I would replace Simpson with Pat Boone singing Metallica songs.
 
I hope it's not too late to respond to this post. I live in Michigan and you can buy Jadwiga here. I have two sources in the southeastern part of Michigan.

Jadwiga was a mead barrel aged for 25 years. I bought two bottles of it about 3 or 4 years ago. They were in a wine shop under several layers of thick dust. I bought what they had left for about $35.00 a bottle. After that I couldn't find it anywhere. Then, this past summer my buddy who owns a wine shop told me he could get it. I had him get a couple of bottles but now Jadwiga is only aged for about 6 years.

How does the 25 year old Jadwiga compare to the 6 year old Jadwiga? They don't. The 25 year old mead was one of a kind. The 6 year mead is still good but nothing like the 25 year old mead. And considering it's still sold at $35.00 a bottle, I'm not willing to buy out all the stock I find in stores anymore...

Jon.
 
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