Meadow Vista Winery is one of two Okanagan meaderies producing honey wine. Having never tried a mead/honey wine before I didn’t know what to expect. But Judie Barta, founder and “Queen Bee” of Meadow Vista kindly took 8 bewildered guests by the hand during the Mead 101 event.

Mead, if you don’t remember your Medieval history, is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water. Sounds pretty simple, but add different types of honey, stone fruits such as apricots, cherries or grapes and you’ve created a complex honey wine that could hold its own against any grape wine.

Honey, as I learned during the Wine Bloggers’ Conference 2013, is the only non-perishable substance on this earth. It lasts forever. It has been used to preserve, to illuminate the skin/hair and even more recently has been determined to be a great aid to prevent and cure hangovers.