Honey, let’s go mead tasting: Virginia’s 8 best meaderies to visit

Dive into the honey-drenched world of mead with these eight must-visit meaderies in Virginia.

Virginia’s rich mead-making tradition offers a delightful journey for beverage enthusiasts seeking something beyond the conventional wine and beer. Mead, crafted from fermented honey, spans a spectrum of flavors, from dry to sweet, offering a unique taste of the ancient world with a modern twist.

Here are eight meaderies in Virginia that are worth checking out:

Misty Mountain Meadworks

Location: 661 Warm Springs Rd. Winchester, VA 22603

Misty Mountain Meadworks calls itself the oldest operating meadery in Virginia. It’s owned and operated by the Copeland family. The main mead maker, Richard, has been making it since 1983.

You can’t go wrong with the “Butterscotch ‘N’ Honey Mead,” which combines the flavor of butterscotch with the meadery’s own honey. It’s described as a sweet honey-forward wine with rich finishes of cartelized sugar, buttery cream, and a hint of vanilla. 

Black Heath Meadery

Location: 1313 Altamont Ave. Richmond, VA 23230

Black Heath Meadery takes pride in the fact that it recreates the world’s oldest fermented beverage by taking advantage of modern techniques while focusing on Virginia agriculture. In doing so, it strives to support Virginia beekeepers and help establish and sustain local bee populations.

Try its 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup gold medal award winners: “Apple Pie” and “Blue Angel – Apple.”

Photo courtesy of Black Heath Meadery via Facebook.

StoneHouse Meadery

Location: 36580 Shoemaker School Rd. Purcellville, VA 20132

StoneHouse Meadery is a family-run business that ferments honey into mead. It focuses on making what it says is high-quality mead using local honey and 21st century knowledge. This meadery is open in the spring and summer by appointment only.

Haley’s Honey Meadery

Locations: 1600 Princess Anne St. Fredericksburg, VA 22401 and 253-237 East Broadway in
Hopewell, VA 23860

Haley’s Honey Meadery is a family-owned-and-operated micro meadery. It describes its production process as taking fresh high-quality local ingredients and producing flavors and aromas that capture nature’s gift. Its goal is to make every bottle an experience the consumer won’t forget.

With 14 mead varieties, there’s surely a bottle that will resonate with everyone. Give the “Taken For Granted – Pomegranate Mead” a try. 

Saga Meadery

Location: 7 South St. Front Royal, VA 22630

Saga Meadery has said it prides itself on providing high-quality, bold-flavored mead at a price that can be enjoyed every day. As a result, its meads are approachable for people who have never had mead but are also complex and unique enough for seasoned mead drinkers. 

Its meads include the “Crisp Apple,” “Winter Cheer,” and “Wild Flower.” Especially good for warm weather, the “Wild Flower” offers a simple, light, and delicate honey flavor with floral notes. The meadery recommends enjoying it while on a bike ride, hike, or picnic. 

Photo courtesy of Saga Meadery.

Silver Hand Meadery

Location: 224 Monticello Ave. Williamsburg, VA 23185

Although mead is an old drink, Silver Hand Meadery’s goal is to recreate what mead once was while also reimagining and reinventing it. In doing so, it strives to produce meads that are enjoyable to both mead aficionados and those who are new to the historic beverage. Its mead ranges from dry to sweet.

Give one of its two 2024 Virginia Governor’s Cup gold medal winners, “Raspberry Passion,” a semi-sweet melomel made with Appalachian wildflower honey, raspberries and passion fruit, or “Virginia Tonight!,” a semi-sweet traditional mead made with Virginia wildflower and Appalachian wildflower honeys and aged in bourbon barrels, a try.

Atheling Meadworks

Location: 451 McClanahan St. Roanoke, VA 24014

Atheling Meadworks is the culmination of a lifetime of interest in mead on the part of proprietor Stephen Ausband. He first expressed an interest in the drink after hearing his father, an English professor, read “Beowulf” and heard of the hero saving the king’s mead hall from a monster. He later experimented with fermenting honey before going to medical school. Years later, he opened the meadery in an old Dr. Pepper bottling plant. Today, the meadery focuses on small-batch, premium quality mead. 

Consider going with the “Shield Maiden,” a winner of the 2020 National Honey Board Mead Crafters Competition. It’s crafted with raspberry blossom honey and blackberries before being aged in oak. It has a hint of sweetness with a complex blackberry and floral flavor.

Meadery at Graham Ordinary

Location: 8578 Peaks Rd. Bedford, VA 24523

Unlike other meaderies, the Meadery at Graham Ordinary has a long legacy. It’s based at a colonial-era Appalachian log cab and farm homestead that was built in the late 1790s. Today, the cabin is operated as a bed and breakfast, along with a meadery on the property, which launched in 2022.

While at the meadery, get a glimpse into the production process by following the honey trail, where working bee hives can be found. 

Photo courtesy of the Meadery at Graham Ordinary.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.