Mead Spotlight!

Atheling Oathring

$58.99 for the 750ml bottle
Semi-sweet Honey Wine Aged in Brandy Barrels

This mead is a winter holiday release for Roanoke’s Atheling Meadworks, but unfortunately it didn’t make it onto our radar at that time. We wondered at getting it “out of season,” but boy (!), are we glad we did!

Oath rings are pieces of Scandinavian jewelry that date back to the Bronze Age — arm bands with funnel-shaped ends. The bands were made of bronze, silver, or gold and had uses and significance beyond mere decoration. For one thing, such bands could be broken up and used as currency. So, where we regularly wear our hearts on our sleeves, the Vikings would wear their wallets on their arms. ( ;D ) Of course, such bands worked as gifts and tokens — a commemoration of an event or rite of passage, a physical representation of political or religious commitments, hence the name “oath ring,” applied by later generations.

For Atheling’s Oathring, Atheling takes a semi-sweet mead and then allows it “to naturally settle and age for six months.” They then take that mead and further age it in premium brandy barrels for three years!

Apropos to the path the Oathring takes to get to the bottle, this mead is a journey to drink. First you get the brandy, then you get the mead, then you get the brandy again. The mead itself revels in the complexity of its honey. Notes of red clover, chamomile, sage, heather, and even nettles run across our tongues with the rich brandy flavor keeping it all together. We’re ready to take an oath that this mead is great … even if there’s no one to give us a gold ring to signify our attestation.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!