Mead (and Cider) in Southwest Virginia

May 3, 2008

The Sprout is now of an age where we can start carrying him around places without it being a strategic nightmare and risk to our sanity. So we set out to find out what there was nearby. Imagine our surprise to find a meadery almost in our back yard.

We set out this morning from Blacksburg to Carroll County Virginia to visit the Blacksnake Meadery, now in its second year of operation. Steve Villers met us on the front porch of the small cabin on the site which — although recent construction — he says was built from old tobacco barn timbers from Salem. We tried three of their products while chatting with Steve about life in Northern Virginia.

The first was a dry mead, which was crisp and tart but not sweet. The second was a cyser, or mixture of mead and cider. And the third was called “Bee Brew” — mead infused with hops, which Wikipedia suggests probably qualifies it as a “braggot.” We left with a braggot, the dry mead, and directions to cider-maker Diane Flint’s inaugural open house about a mile away.

Diane Flint’s Foggy Ridge Cider looks like all new construction, and her nearby orchard was in full bloom when we arrived. Foggy Ridge makes their ciders out of a number of heirloom variety apples. And while Foggy Ridge Cider definitely has a more upscale look and feel to it compared to the Blacksnake Meadery, Diane graciously welcomed both of us be-jeaned and sandaled passersby to try out the ciders. Just as she did her neighbor the ex-bootlegger, who dropped in to get a look at her “distillery.”

We tried three varieties here as well: the “serious cider,” a dry and delicate cider. “First Fruit,” which was sweeter but on the tart side, and the “Sweet Stayman” cider which had more of a desert flavor but would certainly go well with meaty southern main courses. Incidentally, none of the three ciders tasted anything like the malty Woodchuck that my friends and I drank in college. Diane certainly changed my mind about cider.

So it’s not only grape wines Virginia does well — it’s also now mead and cider. Both producers seem to be on the fast track to distribution beyond the immediate area so you might bump into them at an event or two. But you can also get instructions on how to order from their web site.

Photo: Blacksnake Meadery, blatantly lifted from Steve Villers’ web site. I hope he doesn’t mind.

Posted in Food