Majestic taps into growing thirst for mead
Majestic Wine has added Lyme Bay Winery’s Traditional Mead to its shelves and online, marking a significant step for the honey-based drink. The listing positions mead squarely within the UK retail mainstream, amid growing consumer curiosity.
Majestic Wine has confirmed it is now stocking Lyme Bay Winery’s Traditional Mead across 146 stores nationwide as well as online, according to the retailer’s recent announcement. The listing allows customers to purchase the Devon-made drink in-store, through click-and-collect or home delivery.
The 14.5% ABV mead, sold in 75cl bottles at £12.00 each, is made by fermenting honey with water and yeast, as described in Majestic’s product information.
Classified as part of the English wine range
Majestic has placed Lyme Bay’s mead within its English wine portfolio under “All Wines > White Wine > England”. This positioning reflects, in the company’s words, a focus on “conserving the best of English wine and mead-making tradition” and underlines mead’s longstanding place in historic fermentation practices.
Lyme Bay Winery, based in Devon and described as the UK’s largest producer of mead, has built its reputation on traditional honey fermentations without added fruits or spices. Its Traditional Mead is characterised by a rich floral aroma, velvety honey notes and a smooth honeycomb finish.
Producer and retailer reaction
Wolfgang Sieg-Hogg, managing director at Lyme Bay Winery, told the drinks business: “Seeing our Traditional Mead on the shelves and online at Majestic is a proud moment for the Lyme Bay team and also a major step forward for the category. Mead has an incredible heritage as the world’s oldest alcoholic drink and Majestic now stocking it brings it firmly into the mainstream.”
He added: “Mead is such a versatile drink; it can be enjoyed neat, on ice, as a long alcoholic drink with a mixer or added to cocktails, so it is fantastic that it’s now going to be readily available to curious new drinkers, as well as its existing dedicated followers.”
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From Majestic’s side, senior proposition development buyer Tom Brady said: “At Majestic, we love helping our customers discover exciting new styles – and Mead is a perfect example. There is definitely a growing interest in the category and it ranked among the top five most searched-for items on our website last Christmas, so we’re thrilled to be working with premium English producer Lyme Bay Winery to bring their award-winning Mead into our range this year.”
Growing appetite for mead
Mead, often described as the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage, has in recent years found new momentum. In the US, the category was declared the fastest-growing drinks sector in 2017, and Fortune Business Insights projects the global mead market to grow from US$591.5 million in 2024 to US$1,395.7 million by 2032, at a compound annual growth rate of 11.33%.
In the UK, producers such as Lyme Bay and Gosnells are helping to broaden perceptions of mead, either by emphasising heritage and tradition or, as in Gosnells’ case, rebranding to reach younger audiences, as reported by the drinks business.
Duty reforms add to momentum
Mead also looks set to benefit from the recent reform of alcohol duty, which shifted from categorisation by product type to taxation based on ABV. According to analysis published by the drinks business in August 2023, this change has been described as a boon for the sector, with producers now freer to experiment with a range of strengths.
Tom Gosnell, founder of Gosnells, said that draught mead would now fall under the same relief as beer, likening the situation to the small brewers’ relief which drove growth in the craft beer industry.
From medieval roots to modern revival
Though mead has long been associated with medieval banquets and Viking myths, today’s producers are reframing it for a new generation of drinkers. Its versatility, whether enjoyed neat, over ice, or mixed, and potential for varied flavour profiles mean it is well placed to appeal to consumers seeking authentic and distinctive drinks.
Majestic’s decision to give Lyme Bay’s Traditional Mead a national platform signals that mead may be on the cusp of moving from curiosity to fully-fledged category.
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