Bochet — tasting notes & food pairings

Bochet

Bochet is mead made from honey that has been caramelized — cooked, sometimes almost to burning, before it is diluted and fermented — so that the finished honey wine carries deep toffee, caramel, marshmallow and dark-fruit notes in place of the light floral sweetness of ordinary mead. Named from an Old French term and recorded in the medieval kitchens of France, it pours a rich mahogany, chestnut or copper rather than pale gold, and on the nose and palate leads with burnt sugar, butterscotch, toasted marshmallow, dried fruit and a faint smoky, coffee-like edge from the deepest caramelization. Usually landing somewhere around 8 to 14 percent alcohol depending on the honey charge and the ferment, bochet can be dry or sweet, still or lightly sparkling. It is a culinarily distinct style within the mead family, defined entirely by one transformative step at the stove, and a favourite of the modern craft-mead revival for anyone who loves the flavour of caramel and crème brûlée.

Bittersweet11% ABV

Pouring warm amber through mahogany to near-black and glossy in the glass, bochet leads with burnt sugar, toffee and butterscotch over toasted marshmallow, dried fig and dark fruit, and — from the deepest caramelization — a faint dark-chocolate, coffee and smoky edge. Medium to full-bodied and often lightly viscous, it runs from bone-dry to lusciously sweet, though even a dry bochet reads as rich because its caramel aromatics suggest a sweetness the yeast has fermented away. Warming at around 8 to 14 percent alcohol and best poured small like a dessert wine, it is the caramelized-honey member of the mead family, at home beside crème brûlée, salted-caramel and dark-chocolate puddings, sticky toffee, sharp aged and blue cheeses and roasted nuts.

Bochet

Bittersweet11% ABV