August 2026 is a very special time for us, it’s hard to believe that we have been developing and making mead now for 10 years. Who would have believed in 2016, the journey we have been on now? Looking back, it’s been absolute rollercoaster 🎢 of emotions, up and downs, twists and very special moments.
So we are celebrating the journey by bringing back arguably, the most special mead in our collection. The Triple Irish Miskey …
Irish Honey Mead
It all starts with the bees in West Cork. Most of our bulk honey comes from Spain, from a honey co-operative that has honey from beekeepers all over the country, luscious orange blossom for our Atlantic Dry, smoky Forest honey for our Dark Forest Honey Mead and tangy Spanish blossom honey for our berry meads.
Ireland is one of the lowest honey-producing countries in Europe, which is why the delicate sweetness and flavours of our Wildflower Mead is so special. It’s the one mead we make that’s made using 100% Irish honey from Chanting Bee Apiary, 35 minutes hive door to meadery door. We made our first batch in 2020, (lots of sweat💥, tears and a little blood too!) with the first bottles sold in March 2021. There’s history!
Irish Whiskey
Then in 2022, a chance conversation with the team at Midleton Distillery, an hour east of the meadery, got us wondering: what if we aged our mead in Irish whiskey casks? And project Miskey was born, after a lot of visits up and down the N40 between us, many discussions, tastings and legal agreements 📝 to and fro.
The first casks were rolled into the meadery 2023, and the first proud bottles sold, Paddy’s Day, March 2024.
Irish Oak
We started working with American Oak casks but then the team at Midleton mentioned we could maybe, just maybe get our hands on some Irish Oak casks that had just finished maturing some single pot still Irish whiskey, if we’d like.
Would we ever?!
We knew how rare casks were that were made from Irish Oak trees and the beautiful effect they had on Irish whiskey. We jumped at the chance and our Triple Irish was born. 👣
| Our 10th Mead After 10 Years |
Over the ten years since we started Kinsale Mead, we’ve experimented with all sorts of recipes and flavours—some with more success than others… It’s been lots of hard, back-breaking work, late night head-scratching, spills, mopping🧹, laughter, breakages, bad language, dancing and meticulous research. It can be hard to take when your experiment turns out to be a bust. 😭But challenges are the candle to innovation’s bonfire 🔥and every now and then we create something truly special. In our tenth year, it feels fitting that this mead is the most Irish. When we opened our doors, we were the first meadery in Ireland in over 200 years. To help bring this ancient drink back to Ireland and then to create this version, rooted in Irish history, innovation and expertise makes us incredibly proud and leaves a lump in our throats. 😭 We’re so excited to be sharing it with you once again. Sláinte. |
