Kinsale Mead - 10 years in the making!🥳*
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Sale!

Kinsale Mead Collections – Choose your favourite selection

Price range: €29.00 through €214.00

If you would prefer to substitute one bottle for another of the same price, just put a note on the order shipping note and we’ll sort it out.

All gluten free, low in sulfites, 70cl bottles and refreshingly different.

Delivery

* FREE shipping when you spend over €100

Flat Rate Delivery charge to anywhere in Ireland is €7.95 with our new shipping company, DPD, and to Northern Ireland is £6.95, delivered within 1 or 2 working days. We also have a UPS Express delivery which is usually delivered the next working day. Full Delivery details page here also lists some suppliers who can ship mead abroad, including to the UK and USA. 

Customer Reviews

Atlantic Dry Mead: First class product. Atlantic Dry Mead is my particular favourite, aroma of blossom and taste of the flower through the honey. (Mark E.)

Wild Red Mead: Not only a beautiful beverage but also top notch customer service. Big thanks to Kinsale Mead Co for providing me with this little bottle of joy! (Malwina T.)

Hazy Summer Mead: Generous fruit character and a zingy off-dry finish, enjoy like a light wine with charcuterie or salted cheese (Aoife Carrigy, Irish Independent)

Kinsale Mead Co has upped its impressive game another notch with its latest limited-edition release. Based on forest honey fermented with blackcurrants and black cherries, Wild Red Mead – Merlot Barrel Aged is aged for two years, plus one in ex-Merlot barrels. At 12% with generous fruit character and a zingy, off dry finish, it can be enjoyed like a light red wine with charcuterie or salty cheese. (Aoife Carrigy – Irish Independent)

Atlantic Dry Mead – Sauternes Barrel Aged: Floral and scented with layers of honey, toasted nuts and citrus peel. Intriguing and delicious. Try with strong cheeses – it would be great with blue cheese (John Wilson – Irish Times)

Storage

Store the bottles similar to wine, upright in a cool place away from direct sunlight and they should keep for at least two years.

Once opened, store the bottles upright in the fridge. If you have one of those vacuum pump wine bottle closures that pump out the oxygen, all the better. After that the flavour starts to change a little as the air gets to it. Good to drink still or use in cocktails or cooking.

The Atlantic Dry Mead starts to change in flavour after 10 days. The Wild Red Mead and the Hazy Summer Mead are fine for 3 weeks as there are more natural preservatives from the skins. Then they become more port-like. The Wildflower Mead, Barrel Aged Meads and Miskeys all keep for at least a month, if there’s any left by then.

Food Pairing

Atlantic Dry Mead is lovely with salty snacks such as olives, roasted nuts, seafood or artisan crisps. Try poaching scallops with a creamy mead sauce or try it with chicken in black bean sauce. For desserts, it’s lovely raspberry and white chocolate sponge, poached fruit such as plums or nectarines or goats cheese.

Wild Red Mead: Great with Italian dishes with a rich tomato sauce or with medieval feast dishes such as roast duck or venison as well as sticky barbecue ribs, sausages and black pudding. Lovely with strong cheeses or good quality chocolate. We love it with Chocolate brownies too and Christmas goodies like mince pies, Christmas cake and pudding.

Hazy Summer Mead pairs beautifully with spicy chicken wings, a mild Thai red curry or spicy bean stew. Try a light summer salad with raspberry vinaigrette or honey glazed ham and your Christmas Turkey. For dessert we love it with berry pavlova or poured over vanilla ice cream.

Wild Red Mead – Merlot Barrel Aged shines with food such as roast rack of lamb and rosemary or mushroom pâté on thin cut toast, Prosciutto or Palma ham or artisan mini sausages or chipolatas.

Atlantic Dry Mead – Sauternes Barrel Aged shines with food such as smoked salmon crostini, or sushi or sashimi. Great with mushroom pate especially if you add a slug into the mix! For a sweet finish try with vanilla fairy cakes.

Wildflower Irish Mead aged in whiskey casks from Midleton Distillery – Warm apple tart and vanilla ice cream or fruit cake with strong cheese

Dark Forest Honey Mead aged in whiskey casks from Midleton Distillery – Try sticky toffee pudding, fudge or cheese scones to accompany this semi-sweet mead or just as an after dinner sharing.

Awards

Our meads have won many awards including Blas na hEireann, Great Taste Awards, International Mazer Cup, Free From Awards, European MMC and Drink of the Year at the Irish Made Awards.

Signature Series

Atlantic Dry Mead –  A delicious, off-dry traditional style mead, beautifully crisp with a lovely citrus honey flavour. Best enjoyed lightly chilled or over ice. Popular with whiskey lovers. It has lovely citrus floral aromas and longer lingering hints of honey with almost no sweetness. Refreshingly different and definitely intriguing, it’s a great introduction to traditional style meads. This is the favourite choice for whiskey lovers. (12% ABV)

Wild Red Mead – A gorgeous melomel mead fermented off-dry with Wexford blackcurrants, dark cherries and raw honey; an amazingly enticing drink with a beautiful, rich colour. The Irish blackcurrants are beautifully balanced with the dark cherries, tempered over the hint of honey and matured to a very smooth finish. Deliciously smooth at room temperature. Low in tannins, this is popular with wine drinkers. (12% ABV)

Hazy Summer Mead – A fabulous, fruity, off-dry berry mead with generous strawberry and raspberry aromas, a lovely burst of summer berries and a smooth, subtle honey finish. Perfect served lightly chilled or over ice or in a sharing jug with frozen berries. It is fermented from raw honey muddled with a tumble of ripe summer berries. Best choice for craft drinkers especially gin or craft beer lovers. (11% ABV)

Wine Barrel Aged

Wild Red Mead – Merlot Barrel Aged – A gorgeous 3 year-old berry mead fermented off dry and silky smooth and matured for the last 12 months in French Merlot wine barrels to add intriguing structure and depth. An exceptional, unique mead, a lively, attractive drink with a decadent richness. Drink of the Year from the Irish Food Writers’ Guild in 2021. Enticing and warm, juicy with bright red and black fruit flavours from the Wexford blackcurrants and dark, sweet cherries. A luxurious, smooth texture with a fruity burst that explodes on the palate, soft low tannins and a clean finish. Delicious served at room temperature on its own or with fine food. (12% ABV)

Atlantic Dry Mead – Sauternes Barrel Aged – A gorgeous 3-year-old traditional mead fermented from orange blossom honey, finished silky and honeyed, matured for the last 12 months in French oak wine barrels to add intriguing structure and depth. A fine, unique mead with lingering almond, refreshing citrus notes. Enticing with a bright clean finish and a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity. There’s an initial burst of honey at first, very refreshing, followed by the subtle almond and florals such as honeysuckle and white acacia flowers. Like summertime on the Mediterranean coast. Enjoy this delicious mead lightly chilled. (12% ABV)

Miskeys

Dark Forest Honey Mead – A gorgeous traditional mead fermented from a dark, smoky forest honey from Galicia in Northern Spain and aged in carefully selected American oak whiskey casks from Midleton Distillery in Co Cork. This cask had been seasoned with single pot still Irish whiskey. We adore the final flavours of this very special, initial single cask release. Tasting Notes: Finished semi sweet with enticing whiskey aromas, baked apple, coconut and vanilla notes, lingering peach and vanilla finish.

Wildflower Irish Mead – Triple Irish! We aged our Wildflower mead in an Irish oak whiskey cask from Midleton distillery. These very special casks were seasoned with single pot still Irish whiskey. The semi-sweet mead from wildflower honey from Paul Kelly’s apiary in Ring, West Cork, the Irish oak from Co. Wicklow and the single pot still Irish Whiskey from Midleton Distillery, East Cork, culminate in a drink that’s light and quite unique. Tasting Notes: Fragrant floral aromas, on the nose, a beautiful round mouthfeel, fruity with quite delicate flavours of butterscotchrose petals, orange peel and blossom, vanilla and cocoa from the oak.

History

Our beautiful barrel aged label was inspired by the story of the “Wild Geese” Irish who emigrated in waves from Ireland to the continent at the end of the Jacobite wars and settled in France to start trading and making wine. Today, in Bordeaux, you can find the names of those resilient Irish emigrants on the streets and vineyards of the region – Lynch, Barton, Boyd, Phelan – alongside other trading connections to the wine ports of Ireland.

Kinsale in 18th century was a thriving wine port, importing barrels from the France, Spain, Portugal. The harbour and warehouses were full of the finest wines, ports and sherries. In a sense, we are completing the circle, bringing those precious barrels back to Ireland.

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