What this site is
Best Honey Wine is an independent publication about honey wine, which most English speakers know as mead. We explain what it is, how it tastes, how it is made and how to buy it, and we point readers to the bottles we think are most worth their money.
We started it because honey wine is badly served online. Search for it and you find homebrew forums and fantasy-game wikis, and very little written for someone who simply wants a good bottle. There was room for a plain, accurate guide aimed at wine drinkers.
We are not a winery, we do not sell wine, and we are not owned by or part of any producer.
How we research
We would rather tell you exactly where a claim comes from than dress it up.
- Specifications (alcohol, ingredients, calories, aging, price) come from the producer's own published information. We record the date we checked prices and show it on every bottle card, bottle page and price table.
- Scores and medals are cited to the body that awarded them, with a link where one exists. If the only source for an award is the producer's own list, we say so.
- Tasting notes for individual bottles are the producer's, condensed, unless we explicitly say they are ours. We do not invent tasting panels, star ratings or customer reviews, and there are none on this site.
- Background material (history, regulation, fermentation science, pairing principles) draws on standard references such as competition style guidelines, federal regulations and published research, which we link from each article.
- Claims we cannot verify, such as a producer saying it is the first or only one to do something, are reported as the producer's claim.
If you spot an error, tell us and we will fix it: hello@besthoneywine.com.
How the site is funded
This site earns money through affiliate links. If you click a link from here to a retailer and buy something, we may receive a commission. It costs you nothing extra.
Our affiliate partners are online wine retailers on the Awin affiliate network, listed in our affiliate disclosure. None of them sells honey wine, so our Shop pages list grape wines, gifts and clubs we think honey wine drinkers will like, with each retailer's own product notes.
Our honey wine bottle guides focus on Bee d'Vine, the producer whose approach we find most convincing (honey and water only, dry styles, long aging, independently scored wines). We would rather explain one producer in detail than fifty we cannot, but it does mean that advice is concentrated on one winery, and you should weigh it with that in mind. Links to Bee d'Vine currently earn us nothing. We name other producers we respect in our best honey wine guide.
Commission does not decide how we rank anything, and we say so when we think a bottle is poor value. We do not accept payment for coverage. Our full policy is in the affiliate disclosure.
Alcohol and responsibility
This site is about alcoholic drinks and is written for adults of legal drinking age, which is 21 in the United States. We do not make health claims for honey wine. Please drink in moderation, and never drink and drive.
Contact
Questions, corrections and suggestions: hello@besthoneywine.com. Producers are welcome to write to us, but we do not accept payment for coverage.