05/23/2019
As New York state looks to grow craft beverages, Mead, wine crafted from Honey, is growing!
The Finger Lakes Mead Festival will be hosted by CK Cellars this Saturday, May 25, at Earle Estates Meadery in Penn Yan on Seneca Lake’s West shore. The Mead Festival is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but the meadery will be featuring Mead specials all weekend.
Here’s your chance to discover “the other white wine” – Mead – said Paul Curcillo, owner of CK Cellars with his wife, Stephanie King.
“Join us to see what the ‘buzz’ is all about and experience the unique taste of the oldest fermented beverage,” Curcillo added. “A unique wine in and of itself, see the many varieties and blends that can be created to please almost any palate with nature’s other fruits.”
The Team at Earle Estates is excited about a new state law creating a new license for farm meaderies. Under the law, mead-makers who use 100 percent New York state honey will now be able to apply for a state farm meadery license. With the license, makers of mead will be allowed to offer onsite tastings and sell their products by the glass in tasting rooms or takeout packages.
“At Earle Estates Meadery (www.meadery.com), our Mead, sometimes called “honey wine,” is produced similar to grape wine by simply fermenting honey and water with yeast,” Curcillo explained. “That’s why we refer to our Mead as “the other white wine”. (www.theotherwhitewine.com)
The New York Farm Winery Act of 1976 is credited with spurring the boom in the state’s wine industry, and other, similar licenses have helped the brewery, distillery and hard “cidery” industries grow over the years.
The CK Cellars Winery Campuses are located on the west side of New York’s Seneca Lake (Torrey Ridge, WortHog Cidery, Earle Estates Meadery and Fruit and Specialty Wines and CuKi Fine Wines) and the east side of Keuka Lake (Rooster Hill Vineyards). For more information about CK Cellars, go to www.ckcellars.com. The Finger Lakes Region is the largest concentration of wineries east of California, boasting more than 100 wineries producing world-class wines amidst one of the most beautiful areas nature has to offer. For more about the region, go to www.fingerlakes.org.
