About Mel de Petra
Mel de Petra is a meadery established in 2016, in Beczyn, Poland. It began as a passion in beekeeping and a fascination for Polish historical meads. Both the apiary and meadery are found in the upper Vistula valley, where the bees benefit from lush forest flora and collect predominantly linden nectars.
Mel de Petra focus on the re-construction of Old Polish flavours and aromas, which are based on traditional recipes that have been passed on through generations. The honey is never boiled during production to preserve its fullest aromas and flavours. All the meads are aged at least three years.
The names on the labels refer to the Gregorian calendar of feasts, whereas each mead is fermented around the date of a specific holiday, and its composition is based on the honey harvest preceding this special day. The PENTECOSTES is a particularly noteworthy mead – it is an uncommon dry mead and pairs perfectly with meals, reminiscent of a Chardonnay.
Apiary
Mel de Petra has been running an apiary for over a dozen years in Bęczyn – a small town between Wadowice and Krakow. Bees collect most of their nectar here from forests (maples, willows, buckthorns, berries, honeydew), roadside linden trees, meadows and orchards, sometimes from rapeseed and phacelia. There are very good conditions for breeding bees here – the diverse landscape and vegetation compensate for the lack of large-scale cultivation of melliferous plants. Nectar scarcity is brief until August and the bees are constantly busy working. Honey harvesting takes place two or three times a year. Spring honey is mainly obtained from willows, maples, orchards and rapeseed. At the turn of spring and summer honey comes from the nectar of buckthorn, as well as meadow and forest plants. The last summer honey harvest consists almost exclusively of linden honey, sometimes honeydew appears.
Meadery
The passion for mead production precedes the apiary, which was established to provide Mel de Petra with the most important ingredient of mead – natural bee honey. Without good honey it is difficult to obtain a good mead. At Mel de Petra they are sure of the high quality of their honey, so they do not boil the wort – this way all the natural goodness of the honey can reach the bottle. The in-depth knowledge of the honey produced at the apiary allow Mel de Petra to perfectly match the style of mead to the honey from a specific harvest.
Bright and mild spring honey is intended for the dry and light Pentecostes.
Summer, mainly linden honey, is the basis of the Omnium Sanctorum – “maiden” honey, without any additives.
Darker forest, honeydew and autumn honeys are used for spiced honeys – spicy Nativitate and “polish” Resurrectionis.
It goes without saying that there are no artificial additives – such as sugar – in any Mel de Petra meads.
