South African boutique beverages producer Van Hunks has taken a fresh approach to mead and created a brut and a rosé sparkling mead to appeal to champagne and prosecco connoisseurs
From its base at the foot of Table Mountain, Van Hunks is one of the only producers in the world to have successfully achieved a consistently high quality bottle-fermented mead. The meads are produced using honey from bees, which feast on Fynbos wild flowers in the world’s smallest floral kingdom on South Africa’s Cape.
The beauty of Van Hunks Sparkling Mead not only lies in the beautiful bottle design and delicious taste, but also in the story which inspired the brand, which makes for an interesting tale to add sparkle to any dinner table conversation.
The small-batch sparkling mead is inspired by the legend of the prodigious pipe-smoker Captain Jan Van Hunks. Pipe packed and drink in hand, he would stroll through the Fynbos and scale the sandstone mountain cliffs in search of the perfect perch to contemplate the beauty of it all. The story goes that he out-witted the devil in a smoking competition, but not before the smoke they had made had covered the mountain, forming the famous ‘tablecloth’ cloud on Table Mountain.
As we know, the cloud is created by the warm south-easterly breeze rising up the mountain slopes, meeting colder air at higher altitude. Yet, the thick mist that coats the upper-most regions of the mountain waters the flowers that the Van Hunk’s bees feast upon.
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