by Doug Sloan
Tucked almost at the top of Euston Rd on Hornby Island , Middle Mountain Mead is surrounded by beehives in fields of lavender, terraces of black currants, apple trees and grapes. Off across the water there are extraordinary views of Texada Island and behind it the snow-capped Coastal Mountains .
Helen Grond and Cam Graham's wines are all meads - honey wines made from honey and water and infused with herbs, fruits, and spices. Over the last couple of years, Darryl Bohn has grown into a crucial part of this exceptionally creative mead-making team. 
Cyser is the name for mead made with apples and this one is essentially organic. Middle Mountain Apple Cyser (+366237) $18.00/750ml is slightly off-dry and tastes a lot like traditional English cider.
Being entirely organic, it should be refrigerated once opened and sipped within three months of purchase.
Many winelovers are astonished to discover that mead-making has a much more ancient history than today's much more familiar wine-making from grapes. Mead is apparently our oldest fermented beverage - from before 8,000 BCE , possibly as far back as 30,000BC.
This means Neanderthal man likely sipped mead before wandering off into oblivion about 23,000 BCE . Mead that also contains spices like cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg or herbs like oregano, lavender or chamomile is called metheglin .
Some claim that the etymology of this word is the Welsh word meddyglyn , meaning "medicinal liquor", since various healing herbs were often preserved as metheglin so they would be preserved in an active state and available over the winter. It also made them much easier to swallow.
Not all meads are sweet. Nevertheless, many winelovers have preconceptions that get in the way of enjoying - or even trying! - sweeter wines. Middle Mountain Alpenglow (+87056) $20/750ml can help shake those misconceptions. Semi-sweet Alpenglow is richly aromatic, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. Try it with fresh apple pie.
Impossible to forget Middle Mountain Wild Harvest Mead (+384743) $22/375ml is a sweet lavender-scented infusion of local salal berry, oregon grape, and blackberry. Sip solo or use sparingly (…saving some to serve with the food!) to baste and sauce roasted cornish hens stuffed with wild rice.
Even with thousands of bees doing their part, more traditional meads require enormous amounts of honey to turn into wine. Consequently these sweeter treasures are generally bottled in 375ml halves, although some of the less sweet meads are in 750ml wine bottles.
“Entheogen” is a compound term that means "containing deity" or "the god within" - a plant or chemical substance taken to enhance a primary religious experience, for example: peyote cactus as used in the Native American Church .
The word refers to non-addictive artificial and natural substances that induce alterations of consciousness similar to those documented for ritual ingestion of traditional shamanic inebriants. Mead was considered an entheogen long before the introduction of grape wine.
Prettily ruby pink Middle Mountain Plum Rhubarb (+98863) $22/375ml is a sweet dessert wine with the luscious taste of ripe plums and the tartness of fresh rhubarb. Try it with barbecued teriyaki salmon! Interesting alterations of consciousness may ensue after ingestion.
In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough Mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. This is where we get the word honeymoon – or, as the French say: lune de miel. But all meads need not be sweet.
Astonishingly unique among refreshment beverage alcohols Middle Mountain Green Tea Elixir (+384727) $18/750ml is a thrillingly “dry”, intensely herbal and aromatic mead. Made with ginger and a blend of Sencha and Jasmine teas it is perfect with Asian foods.
Some of these meads are available at the Coast Westerly Beer & Wine store in Courtenay, the Riptide Liquor Store in Campbell River and The Great Escape Restaurant in Cumberland . All of them can be ordered directly from Middle Mountain Mead at (250) 335-1397 for a modest shipping charge of $20/case.
Sometimes the most difficult to acquire, brimming with cassis flavours and packed with Vitamin C Middle Mountain Black Mead (+452961) $22/750ml is based on their own home-grown blackcurrants and finished in a semi-sweet style. Ooh! Ooohh!! Ooohhh!!! Ribena should taste this good!
Doug's opinions are not necessarily those of his employer the BCLD or this website
A huge fan of BC wines, Doug can be reached by email at douglas_sloan@yahoo.com
