Jack Ratt Lyme Bay Westcountry Mead, 75 cl

Product Information

We are passionate about keeping the skill of Westcountry cider making alive. Twenty years ago we started making real, simple, old fashioned quality ciders, and now we have an unrivalled reputation for producing ciders of the highest standard. Over the years this bold approach to producing category-defining drinks has paid off. Since we opened our doors 30 years ago we have seen the success and reputation of our products soar, winning awards from prestigious competitions including the International Wine and Spirit Competition, the International Wine Challenge, the Decanter World Wine Awards and many more.

Treading the normal path is not for us! We prefer to trust our inventive instincts and sense of creativity to push the boundaries whilst aiming for the best possible quality in all that we do. Dark rums from ex-British colonies like Jamaica, Bermuda, and Barbados are typically made from fermented molasses, while lighter-bodied rums from former French colonies like Martinique and Haiti, known as Rhum Agricole (agricultural rum), are made from sugarcane juice. A third family of rum, called Añejo rum, comes from ex-Spanish colonies like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Each one of our Fruit, Country and Sparkling Wines is made with immense care and attention. Our winemaker and dedicated team continually strive to improve and enhance the flavour and depth of each particular wine. Our Cellar Door shop is open every day and showcases our wide range of award-winning English still and sparkling wines, spirits, fruit wines, ciders, meads, and liqueurs. There is always a selection of English wines and other award-winning products available to taste – just ask our helpful staff. For over thirty years Lyme Bay Winery has worked to combine our knowledge and love of flavours and ingredients with our wine-making skills to craft award-winning traditional drinks, tailored to the 21st-century palate. Each of these amazing products is fermented, blended and aged, as appropriate, right here at the Winery under the supervision of our experienced team.The nectar of the gods, the golden liquor of poets, lovers and kings and thought by many an elixir of health, fertility and longevity- smooth and sumptuous mead is rumoured to have aphrodisiac properties and was historically presented to newlyweds to enjoy during what we now call their “honeymoon”. This was largely due to the fact mead is hard to place, he added, as it doesn’t neatly fit into a ‘premium cider’ or ‘wine’ category, for instance. A bright future Lyme Bay, founded in 1993 by Nigel Howard, aimed to create high-quality west country cider using the finest cider apples. Over 30 years, we’ve gained praise for our innovative and consistently high-quality drinks from customers and professionals alike. You’ve heard of an Irish coffee, but how about a Caribbean coffee? Adding a splash of Lugger to your post-dinner coffee makes for a twist on the traditional digestif. If you are looking for a slightly more indulgent end to the meal, why not try adding a splash of cream to your coffee for a more decadent drink? Cooking However, there were plenty of reasons why the future looked bright for mead, according to Gosnell. It slotted with a consumer demand for sustainability, as bees could be sourced sustainability for premium honey.

Our careful ageing and spicing processes have resulted in a truly beautiful product, and that is not just us with a humble brag! Lugger is an award-winning Devon rum and has won such honours as Gold in the International Spirits Challenge 2019 and Gold in the Food and Drink Devon Awards 2019 Ways to Enjoy Lugger Rum While Lyme Bay’s meads could be compared to sweet wines, Gosnells focuses on session-style meads that are suited to the on trade. The Cellar Door is open every day for sampling and shopping. Here we offer Guided Tastings across our different drinks ranges, from English still and sparkling wine to Mead and Spirits – you choose to suit your tastes.Another issue for mead makers is that it is still a fairly new commercialised drink, and for duty’s sake, mead is still not recognised as a stand-alone category. During those 30 years, our range and focus has shifted more and more to wine and mead, passions held by Nigel from the start and our Managing Director, James Lambert since before joining the business in 2006.

What’s more, it fit with the current trend for natural drinks, which consumers are currently drawn to. Furthermore, there was plenty of rich storytelling surrounding mead, which could draw in consumers. As we noted in our 5 Ways to Enjoy Gin article, there are no set rules on how you can enjoy our products, as it comes down to personal preference and taste. However, we are happy to offer a few suggestions which may result in you enjoying the spirit in a way that you hadn’t experienced before. Neat Lambert believed the biggest challenge for the mead sector was people gatekeeping the product. While consumers were attracted to the drink, getting them in front of suppliers was a challenge.As for Lugger Rum itself, we wanted to create a spiced rum that was not defined by an overbearing flavour of vanilla which can be quite common amongst commercial spiced rums. Instead, we wanted to bring a full spice profile to the palate, which is why we age Caribbean rum in bourbon-charred oak barrels right here in our Devon Winery. Once it has been aged to perfection, we spice it with a blend of nutmeg, cloves, orange peel and a hint of vanilla.

Under the watchful eye of our brilliant winemaking team and using secret blends of local ingredients, we take great care crafting traditional recipes into award-winning drinks, tailored to the 21st-century palette. Each of these are fermented, blended and aged, as appropriate, right here at the Winery. To produce rum, sugarcane is harvested, cleaned, sliced, and pressed to extract the sugar juice. Fermentation is started by adding water and yeast to the sugar juice, which turns the sugars into alcohol. Distillation follows, where the fermented molasses or sugarcane juice is boiled and the vapours are collected and condensed into liquids, with the alcoholic liquids collected first.All in all, this bold approach to producing category-defining drinks has paid off. Over the last 25 years we have seen the success and reputation of our products soar: having won 35 awards in 2016 alone, from prestigious competitions including the International Wine and Spirit Competition, the International Cider Challenge, the Decanter World Wine Awards and many more.