Pollen for Mead

Learn more about Oran Mor Artisan Meadery

By Paula Bandy

First look at award-winning Oran Mor Mead’s tasting menu views more like farm-to-plate, but in a bottle. I know mead as honey, water and yeast. I had no idea it could be so versatile– with such honeyed deliciousness. If you recall the thick, sometimes cloying, mead at Highlands Games or a Renaissance Fair, this is far different. The Oran Mor meads, highly refined, offer a flavor experience and complexity more appropriate for table menus or perfume bottles. After a decade in business, let’s just say Oran Mor crafts the bees’ knees of meads.

Oran Mor is Gaelic for “the great song or great harmony of the universe,” explains Lilly Weichberger, CEO and head mead maker (known as a mazer), “And, that’s what we strive for in our meads.” Their Roseburg tasting room feels balanced as well. Expect some drama in the decor, along with cozy spots for lounging, sprinkled with a bit of Goth, swirled with Billy Bob Thorton’s mystical garage art. Like a moth to a flame, drawn by the warming fire towers, hanging out seems like the perfect pastime.

Michael Garcia, Oran Mor’s COO and cellarmaster, explains, “To produce enough honey for a ‘single batch,’ we would need to start a second business. To make 300 gallons of our recipes requires roughly 700 pounds of honey– all the same kind from a single apiary.”

“Mead math is the only kind of math I like,” observes Weichberger. “An average bee produces a mere one-quarter teaspoon honey– in its lifetime. Our average bottle contains about one pound of honey. For one ounce of mead, you need millions of bees, flying thousands of miles, stopping at 10,000 flowers. One of the reasons we began making mead was to support the bees.”

Millennia of Mead

The drink of mead, aka honey wine, has been crafted in every location where there are honey bees (all continents except Antarctica). Mead predates wine and ales by 36,000 years, with its origins in South Africa. Weichberger, who enjoys mythology and history, explains, “Archaeological evidence was found in a bundle of beeswax and fibers, with residue of honey and fermentation in a vessel, and was dated at 42,000 years. It looks to be the ancestral fermented elixir. Internationally, each culture had its version.”

Nearly 20 years ago, while living in Britain, she became hooked on mead. After returning home, she failed to find one she liked. Laughing, Weichberger says, “So, I thought: if I can’t buy it, I’ll make it.”

I was captivated by the bottles lining the counter. Each label its own vibrant, delightful painting. Designed by her sister-in-law, Jeniffer Overdorff creates each label’s artwork depicting the honey and fruits inside, narrating a myth or story about the precious elixir.

Throughout the ages, mead has filled cauldrons and flasks, bottles and barrels, urns and amphorae, so why not a pumpkin? For Oran Mor’s annual Halloween party, Garcia prepares a 200-pound pumpkin and ferments a batch of mead inside the vessel. The party begins after they tap the pumpkin and serve mead within.

Mead Type – Ingredients
Melomel – Fruit
Metheglin – Spices
Pyment – Wine and mead
Rhodonel – Rose petals

The Pairings

Multi-award-winning Aphrodite’s Obsession, one of Weichberger’s first meads, was designed as “a stepping stone for the red wine lover.” This mead is white clover honey-based with elderberry, floral hibiscus and lime. It pairs perfectly with an arugula and spinach salad topped with pomegranate seeds, candied pecans and honey goat cheese.

Linnunrata, referring to the Milky Way, is based on “sima,” a traditional Finnish mead specifically made for May Day. Arizona orange blossom honey is the foundation for this melomel-style mead, brewed with fruit. The lemon and raisins lend a savory note with slightly tart lemon cream. A surprisingly delicious pairing of lamb and rosemary kofta with tzatziki sauce expertly reflects the harmonious flavors.

Ixcacao is a metheglin-style (the Welsh word for medicine), named for the Mayan goddess of fertility, abundance and chocolate. It’s made with organic Brazilian Silvestre wildflower honey, chipotle and chocolate from Lillie Belle Farms. In my opinion, chocolate is definitely good medicine. Savory and warming with a sweet smokiness, when paired with cheesecake, drizzled with a honey-spiced sauce, it was… frankly, Dionysiac.

Method of Meadness

Weichberger approaches mead differently from most mazers. She attended the winemaking program at Southern Oregon Wine Institute with a focus on making mead. “I wanted to learn wine techniques that can be applied to mead, yet focused on honeys. One of the things I discovered while studying winemaking was the balance aspect. I feel it’s lacking in the mead industry. The harmony among tannins, acidity and sweetness is vital,” says Weichberger.

Garcia adds, “She went to school for winemaking so we could leave the homebrew mistakes at home.”

After attending the now-defunct U.C. Davis mead program, she taught yeast and flaw analysis classes, adding structure and balance for meadmaking. She believes those elements are often lost when transitioning from homebrew to commercial production.

Another unique aspect of Oran Mor lies in how the honey is gathered, collected one varietal at a time. Weichberger explains: “Our beekeepers place their bee boxes out to a field for pollination. When that bloom is finished, they pull the boxes, creating a varietal honey. Much like different grape varieties, each honey is distinct. We’re one of the few meaderies using varietally-focused honey specific to the area where it was collected. We tailor our mead around the honey, adding fruit or herbs to enhance, not overwhelm.”

Weichberger continues, “I ask the beekeepers about the primary floral and foraging sources and if it’s spring or fall bloom. Because they produce different honeys, we purchase both seasons. Spring flowers in Umpqua can be blueberry and maple combinations. The bloom and nectar flow with blueberries in the morning. As the day warms, the nectar shuts down and the bees visit the surrounding maple trees. In the fall there’s more Queen Anne’s lace (wild carrot) and knot wood, creating different flavors.”

I realize how balance is achieved when sampling these meads. None have that cloying sweetness routinely associated with the drink. Weichberger explains why. “Meads are often made with a blend of different honeys, which are heavy on sweetness. Mazers often ferment to complete dryness, then ‘back-sweetened’ with more honey, creating that heavy cloying quality.” Garcia describes it as “honey that hasn’t been broken down at all, so you’re drinking it straight at that point.”

Weichberger notes, “This is not something we typically do. Instead, we halt the fermentation with the desired residual sugar intact, rather than back-sweetening. Aided by studying winemaking with biochemistry and microbiology, I can ferment it where I want it, while retaining the residual sugars.” Garcia says meads crafted using this method are drinkable young and also age well.

Special Tastings

Siduri’s Hearth, named for the goddess of fermentation in the epic poem Gilgamesh, is crafted in a Pyment-style, combining wine with mead. Malbec grapes grown in the Rogue Valley were co-fermented with Arizona mesquite blossom honey for lusciously off-dry, floral notes.

Sol, Oran Mor’s flagship beverage, reflects a simple American traditional mead. Made with Arizona orange blossoms, it’s clear, semi-sweet and truly sun in a bottle. With refreshing flavor and a frabjous bouquet, Sol pairs perfectly with cheese and fruits.

Jack of the Wilds is a spicy mead fermented from Willamette Valley-grown pumpkin blossoms. Mellow and snuggly, make it your new autumnal tradition.

A rose by any other name is Aine. Using 100 pounds of organic rose petals form a source near Cave Junction, this mead is produced in a rhodonel style. Vintages vary, but the 2024 limited edition of red rose petals presents a slightly dryer, higher tannin mead than usual.

Inspired by Nordic culture, Odin’s Eye Reserve is a metheglin-style mead. Weichberger married Arizona desert mesquite blossom and clover honeys, aging for two years in bourbon and American oak barrels with a spice blend including: cloves, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, rosemary and black pepper. This mead’s complexity and richness are perfect for a fireside chat.

The Ekstasis Reserve is a one-year, tequila barrel-aged Marmeleiro Brazilian quince blossom honey mead. Tropical notes unite with caramel crème for a breezy, ambrosial “nectar of the gods.”

I was blown away by these meads. There was not one I didn’t adore. While quite different from one another, I enjoyed them all. Each represented a fusion of tastes– and blended flavors– for every mood, season, occasion and celebration. Drink these meads warm, cold or even mixed in a cocktail.

Portland Opening

Weichberger describes Oran Mor’s newly opened Portland tasting room in the Sellwood District as entering a wrought iron gate into an enchanted hidden garden. Inside, visitors will find a century-old house the couple renovated, featuring a wraparound porch surrounded by cherry and willow trees. With seasonally-based tastings and tapas, Weichberger, also lead chef, prepares farm-to-table pairing dinners.

“I’m a complete foodie,” she admits. “I enjoy pairing food with mead– that’s where I get much of my inspiration. I really want people to sit down to a nice meal, with a glass of mead, and not relegate it solely to dessert. Honey is such an amazing canvas for so many flavors. It’s also quite flavorful, far beyond what most people realize.”

Oran Mor Artisan Meadery
305 Melrose Rd., Roseburg
8011 S.E. 13th St., Portland (new)
oranmormead.com

Paula Bandy and her dachshund, Copperiño, are often seen at Rogue Valley’s finest wineries, working to solve the world’s problems. She has covered wine, lifestyle, food and home in numerous publications and academic work in national and international journals. For a decade she was an essayist/on-air commentator and writer for Jefferson Public Radio, Southern Oregon University’s NPR affiliate. Most recently she penned The Wine Stream, a bi-weekly wine column for the Rogue Valley Times. Paula believes wine, like beauty, can save the world.She’s also a Certified Sherry Wine Specialist and creates a line of jewelry, pb~bodyvine, offered through boutiques and galleries. @_paulabandy.