Wye Valley Meadery Traditional Mead (70cl Bottle), 14.5% ABV

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The raspberry gives a nice acidity and it’s quite aromatic, quite punchy and quite fruit-forward. We then aged it on vanilla pods for six months to mellow it out,” says Kit. “It’s an unusual style, more commonly found in the US, and we are excited to see what the UK market thinks of it. It is expensive to brew as it is taxed heavily and the ingredients are more expensive compared to a typical wine – but it’s worth it.” I was about 13 or so when I approached a beekeeper at a country show and said I’d love to learn how to keep bees,” he explains. “The wages were terrible – a jar of honey for a day’s work – but I learned a lot.” The move is part of the ongoing drive to modernise the image of mead while being careful not to alienate traditionalists, including sword ‘n’ sorcery lovers and historical re-enactors. Over half honey by volume before fermentation, our traditional mead is sweet, rich and moreish, this is a bottle of liquid gold.

On the horizon is the Abergavenny Food Festival later this month, a pop-up shop in John Lewis in October, and doing up a mobile trailer to take their mead on the road.After a tour, it is usually possible to book a meal at one of the local hotels. The Wye Valley Hotel is at the bottom of our drive and Sue and Barry would be pleased to hear from you. (Phone 01291 689441). To create our meads, we use honey which we collect from our own beehives, dotted all around the beautiful hills of the Wye Valley region. This area is known for its high concentration of small leaf lime trees, and a high overall biodiversity of flora and fauna. Now we’ve definitely found in the last year or so people are coming to us seeking out mead. People seem to be getting excited about it.” The shop is open every day except Wednesday from 11.30am to 4.40pm in winter and from 1.00pm to 5.30pm in summer. Our full range of wines is on sale and available for tasting alongside our Mead and Fruit Wines. We sell locally produced Perry, Cider & Ale, local honey & preserves. We also have a range of gifts and wine related products.

Friends and family would also give it to the bride and groom as gifts for them to drink during their first ‘moon’ (1 moon cycle, or 1 month to you and me) as newlyweds in the hope that they would conceive a child. This is thought to be where the term ‘honeymoon’ comes from. For over forty years this award-winning vineyard has overlooked Tintern. Visitors are welcome to stroll among the vines and try our wines.Matt (pictured, above right) continued beekeeping as a hobby, having bought a few hives from his mentor, while going on to study geology at university. Kit, meanwhile, did a marketing and design course before working for a UK tech company in product development and design.

What's On Entrepreneur brothers go from making honey to running in-demand business and appearing on TV Visit our Wye Valley Meadery & Hive Mind South Wales Breweries taproom and try our sparkling mead, honey beers and Welsh drinks on tap. As well as delicious beer-infused-dough pizza made in house by a pizza connoisseur (Kit) using our Welsh mead. Wye Valley Meadery also pioneered a lighter sparkling mead, which is four per cent. "Everyone thinks of mead as this really heavy sweet drink that monks and Vikings had," said Kit. On the plus side we had all this time to do everything ourselves and make sure we’re ready to re-open properly. We’ve learned how to drive diggers and we’ve turned the place around. It was completely empty for more than 10 years.The result was the 14.5%Traditional Mead that scooped a Gold Award in April at The Farm Shop & Deli Awards. Among such expansion and ambition, however, it is clear the brothers haven’t lost sight of what matters most to them. If it is not through the rise of craft-brewing, the interest in home-brewing or even the surge in viking themed TV series, then maybe mead will be made popular again because of our passion at the Wye Valley Meadery. We want to make people see that mead is less ‘monks-and-druids’ and more ‘craft-beer-cool’. We want to breath new life into this age-old classic. We want to make mead new.