Mead

Set out in search of the finest bottles of mead. Bestwine • Online shares with you the mead references listed on the menus of the world's most prestigious haute gastronomy addresses. An opportunity to taste the best meads according to the world's greatest taste artisans. Find the best meads Discover meads selected by the chefs and sommeliers of Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurants. A selection by credible and legitimate professionals to help you find your favourite mead. Buy the best meads We guide you towards the most attractive commercial and promotional offers online. You can buy the best meads with complete confidence thanks to a reliable and impartial reference guide. Best meads With Bestwine • Online, the reference guide for the best meads: Taste one of the best meads. Gift an exceptional bottle of mead. Enrich your bar or cellar with a prestigious bottle of mead. Find restaurants where you can taste rare mead references. Discover all the information to better understand mead and its specificities so you can easily choose your brand or bottle of mead. Mead Le Manoir des Abeilles Alcohol volume of the mead: 13.5° Discover the mead Best mead brands Refer to the reviews of chefs, sommeliers and bartenders of Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurants from around the world to discover the best mead brands in the world. A ranking and comparison of the most highly valued mead brands and bottles in starred gastronomic restaurants by experts specialising in haute gastronomy. Mead reference / Mead origin / Mead alcohol volume Mead Le Manoir des Abeilles / France - Calvados / 13.5° The best meads on the menu of starred gastronomic restaurants. Mead Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from wine, honey and water. Mead can be considered a honey wine. The term "mead" comes from the words "hydro" (water) and mel, the root for honey. Mead is said to be the oldest beverage in the world. It is believed to be one of the first alcoholic drinks consumed by humankind. The earliest traces linked to mead production date back more than 7,000 years BC in China. Traces of mead have also been found in Spain dating back 5,000 years BC. The first written mention of mead is credited to Aristotle in 350 BC. Mead has crossed the centuries, consumed by the Greeks, Romans and Gauls. Mead serves as an ancestral and legendary beverage. In Viking mythology, the wife of the god Thor gives the god Loki old mead. The Valkyries and Scandinavian warriors quenched their thirst with mead. Traces of mead dating back several millennia have been found in Denmark. Commonly consumed until the 19th century by the population, mead is today a less popular alcoholic beverage among consumers. However, mead is among the original and terroir-driven beverages. Mead is sometimes associated with chouchen. However, mead and chouchen do not, to begin with, share the same origin. Mead has no cultural label, whereas chouchen is a Celtic alcoholic beverage strongly linked to Druidism. Technically, chouchen sometimes differs from mead since it also contains apple juice, apple must or cider. Mead is most often a still beverage, but there are some sparkling meads that can be produced using the champenoise method. Today, mead is considered a natural beverage due to its composition. Honey has many virtues when consumed. Mead is the base beverage in the composition of many drinks such as mead beers, mead vinegar or mead spirits (eau-de-vie, gin, apirum, cognac, calvados, etc.). Many beverages are similar to mead or include mead among their ingredients: Braggot or honey beer: beer brewed from honey and hops, but also from honey and malt (with or without hops). Black mead: fermented beverage made from honey and blackcurrant. Chouchen: traditional Breton and Celtic beverage fermented from honey and apple (most often apple must, apple juice or cider). Cyser, also called cidromel: fermented beverage made from honey and apple juice. Melomel or fructimel: common name for fermented beverages made from fruits. Morat: fermented beverage made with honey and mulberries. Mulsum: beverage made with honey and strongly alcoholic wine. Omphacomel: medieval alcoholic beverage made with honey and verjuice (juice from unripened grapes). Can be similar to oenomel. Oxymel: medieval beverage made from honey and wine vinegar. Oenomel: a fermented beverage made from grape must and honey. Neu Met: Neu Met is a form of sparkling, tangy mead. Its taste can be slightly vinegary. Mead production Mead is a light alcoholic beverage. The alcohol content of mead is between 9° and 18°. Mead is a beverage that can be dry (0 to 10 g/L), semi-dry (10 to 20 g/L), sweet/mellow (20 to 30 g/L) or liquoreux (40 to 60 g/L) depending on its residual sugar content. There is no official recipe for mead. The ingredients composing mead are always a base of wine, honey and water. The type of honey used to make mead can vary: chestnut honey, buckwheat honey, apple blossom honey, clover honey, acacia honey, rapeseed honey or sunflower honey. Other ingredients can enrich the mead recipe, notably additives such as nutritional salts, sulphites or tannins. Likewise, the dosage of ingredients composing mead can vary from one recipe to another. Likewise, mead is not protected by a controlled or protected designation of origin. However, legislation defines mead as a beverage fermented solely from honey and drinking water. The non-natural yeasts that can be added must be beer or wine yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Saccharomyces bayanus). The regulation mentions that it is possible to add other ingredients such as the mineral salts necessary for the yeasts (mineral salts being present in low quantity in honey), sulphites to stop fermentation, colourants and others. Beverages obtained that do not respect these conditions are not allowed to bear the name "mead." Derivatives of mead exist, for example with starter cultures based on fruit must (grape, apple, etc.) or the addition of spices. In this case, the references cannot use the term mead but use derivative terms that resemble the word mead. Any other designation is therefore permitted. Mead is an alcoholic beverage that can be produced anywhere in the world. However, mead production is more present in Europe. Mead can be named differently depending on the region of the globe where it is produced: Mjød and Mjöd: mead originating from Scandinavia, more precisely from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. It is traditionally flavoured with meadowsweet ('mjødurt' in Norwegian, literally "mead flower"). Pitarrilla: traditional beverage of the Maya people that can even be harmful to health. Pitarrilla is made from honey and balché bark. Polish meads (miód pitny): Czwórniak (brewed using one volume of honey and three volumes of water), Trójniak (brewed using one volume of honey for two volumes of water), Dwójniak (brewed using one volume of honey for one volume of water), Półtorak (brewed using two volumes of honey for one volume of water). Chouchen: chouchen is a fermented alcoholic beverage typical of Brittany. Chouchen can be spelled "chouchenn" with two "n"s. The name chouchenn is very often used in Brittany, the land of chouchen. Chouchen can also be called mez (which means "water and honey beverage" in Breton). Chufere: also a Breton beverage, chufere is brewed from honey and cider with a lighter alcohol content than mead, at 8 or 9° of alcohol. Sima: variety of mead from Finland with an addition of lemon. T'edj: mead of Ethiopian origin brewed by incorporating gesho (buckthorn) with the addition of yeasts. Recipes vary from family to family. Gverc: mead from Croatia, made notably in Samobor. The term gverc or gvirc is of German origin (Gewürze: spices) and refers to the many spices that compose this form of mead. Medica: mead of Slovenian origin. Medovina: Czech, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian and Slovak term for mead. Medovukha: Slavic variant of mead. Mied: mead of Romanian origin. Mead production Making mead requires honey, water and wine, and sometimes yeasts. Mead is obtained by fermenting the various elements. Alcoholic fermentation is the biochemical process that transforms sugars (carbohydrates, mainly glucose) into alcohol (ethanol) in a liquid medium deprived of air. In the case of mead, the yeasts can be natural since honey can contain them, or added in powder form. It is during this fermentation stage that mead forms under the effect of alcohol. The making of mead most often takes place in a steel or stainless steel vat. Mead production takes place in several stages spread over several months: The starter culture: primary mixture of boiled honey and water and potential addition of yeast and nutritional salts for a few days. Fermentation: secondary mixture of ingredients and potentially yeast that allows alcohol to be generated for the beverage. During fermentation, there are 3 stages carried out over several months (the start of fermentation, the monitoring of fermentation and the end of fermentation). Racking: drawing off the mead by separating it from the lees composed of dead yeasts and impurities. Fining: filtration stage that removes impurities present in the mead. Ageing: ageing the mead in bottle or in wooden barrel (oak or chestnut) for several months. Mead develops its aromas during this stage. Mead is bottled in 75cl glass bottles. The price of a good bottle of mead varies between €15 and a few dozen euros. Mead can be plain or flavoured: Capsicumel: mead flavoured with chilli pepper (from the Latin Capsicum, pepper). Metheglin: mead to which herbs or spices have been added, such as ginger, tea, orange zest, nutmeg, coriander seed, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. This name indicates that metheglins were once used in folk medicine (from Welsh meddyg: to heal, and llyn: liquor). Rhodomel: mead flavoured with petals, rose essence or rosehip. It should be noted that mead is an alcoholic beverage that keeps for a short time when the bottle is unopened. There is therefore no vintage of mead. There are many mead producers. To make a good mead, it is necessary to use quality raw materials. Thus, to produce a good mead, you need excellent honey and good wine. This is why many beekeepers produce and market their own mead. Mead producers very often market their own honey from their hives. Thus, there are many mead references and brands. Meads whose flavours vary from one production to another. Indeed, each honey is different and can come from different flowers. The taste of meads can vary according to references, brands and producers. There are several mead brands on the market. Among the most well-known mead brands: Chaudasse, Clos des sentinelles, Famille Mary, Hydromel.be, Hydromel.ch, Laurance, Le rucher de l'Ours, Lunes de Miel, Maison Vergnon, Les Miels Brunet, Miel des Ruisseaux, Miellerie des Clauses, etc. Mead consumption Mead is an alcoholic beverage present on certain wine lists of Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurants. Mead is a beverage that appeals through its vegetal and floral taste. Mead is a fine beverage when ageing takes place in the bottle. Mead has more body, more tannin and a pronounced taste when aged in wooden barrels. Mead also has a warm visual appearance with a golden or amber colour. This atypical colour is produced by the honey diluted in the wine and water. The tone of mead is generally coloured and translucent. Clover or apple blossom honeys, when they compose mead, offer clearer and lighter beverages. Chestnut or buckwheat honeys, for their part, allow stronger meads with darker colours to be obtained. Meads aged in wooden barrels are more coloured since the wood essences dilute into the liquid. Mead is an alcoholic beverage that is sometimes slightly liquoreux. Finally, mead is an alcoholic beverage that appeals through its history. On one hand, the recipes for meads, like the producers, are numerous. Each mead producer has their own story. As an anecdote, it should be noted that the term "honeymoon" comes from a tradition of consuming mead to celebrate a wedding. A term that dates back to the era of Babylon! Mead is consumed as an aperitif or as an accompaniment to dessert. As a sweet beverage, mead pairs particularly well with sweet dishes such as pastries or fruit-based desserts. Mead is enjoyed chilled in small quantities. It should also be noted that mead can be part of the composition of certain original cocktails. An authentic ranking and comparison to choose your mead Choose the best mead for you: Select one or more selection criteria for your mead according to your preferences. Rank the meads according to your selection criterion or criteria. Select your mead reference. Buy online one of the best meads at the best price. Savour one of the best meads! The selection of premium meads How are meads selected on Bestwine • Online? Bestwine • Online references the meads present on the wine list and in the cellars of the most well-known and recognised gastronomic restaurants around the world. Mead references favoured by the greatest chefs and sommeliers of gastronomy themselves valued by critics. Only mead references marketed online are presented to you to allow you to easily purchase them. How is the reference guide for the best meads updated? The reference guide for the best meads is updated daily by integrating new references that come from the wine lists of gastronomic restaurants made available to us. Likewise, we update commercial and promotional offers to allow you to buy a quality mead online at the best price. We are committed to presenting only mead references from the wine list of awarded gastronomic restaurants.