Mead me in Nelson: County winery makes history in a bottle

By Erin McGrath

Published: June 26, 2008

One Nelson County winery is keeping history alive.

Out of the nine wineries and one brewery that call Nelson home, Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery is the only one that makes mead.

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made with honey, water and yeast. The drink dates back as far as ancient Greece.

Kimberly Pugh, co-owner and vintner at Hill Top in Nellysford, said the mead-making got started with her father, founder of the winery.

Marlyn Pugh made the first batch of mead in the late 1990’s because the family had honeybees on their land, Pugh said.

“When I came along, I was really interested in history,” Kim Pugh said. “As I was looking into the history of mead, I got excited about it. There’s so many of them.”

Currently, the Pughs produce half a dozen meads in varying flavors at the winery, with more on the way.

“Mead is actually a lot of work,” Pugh said. “There’s certain parts of the process and getting the honey and everything ready that’s just a lot of work.”

The honey and water used in Hill Top’s mead mixes are from local sources. Most of the fruit used in the meads is also local, some grown right on the winery property.

“A lot of our fruit is grown here, but what we don’t grow here we either lease locally or as close as possible,” Pugh said.

The beehives that produced the honey for the original meads don’t support what Hill Top needs now. The winery uses 5,000 pounds of honey per year for their mead operation.

With this tall of an order, Pugh said it’s hard finding farmers that have enough to fill it. They have to use a honey broker.

“It’s kind of a hard thing to do because honey is an expensive thing,” Pugh said.

The family owned and operated winery makes almost 5,000 gallons of wine and mead per year, but hopes to soon pass that total.