The Solace of the Rains
Gordon Hull, proprietor of Point Reyes Station’s Heidrun Meadery, estimates it’s been 10 years since the last black button sage honey made its way through the doors of his meadery. Enduring a decade of drought, the evergreen chaparral (Salvia mellifera, a.k.a. black sage) hid its beauty, an extended dormancy to protect itself from difficult conditions. The spring rains of 2023—more than 13 inches, delivered at a steady interval throughout the season—created optimal conditions for the pale blue-lavender flowerets that grow in pillowy “buttons” on the sage’s tall stalks.
In the southern Central Coast range, where beekeeper Steve Godlin keeps many of his 4,000 hives, the sage’s expansive bloom throughout April and May and even into June were a boon for him and for the bees.
Godlin’s bees, hungry after their March efforts to pollinate California’s almond crop, dove into the sage’s substantial bloom, foraging sweet nectar and pollen to nourish themselves while launching a process to make honey for a unique mead. Happy bees make honey and Godlin produced “several hundred barrels of sage” honey, much of which went to Hull’s meadery.
At Heidrun, Hull turns sage-foraged honey into mead using traditional methode champenoise techniques. Each new mead batch expresses the unique flavors of the honey varietal used. “Black sage makes a beautiful mead,” says Hull, who seeks out Godlin’s honey for the delicate, crisp character it displays once he’s crafted it into the sparkling beverage. “It’s light—straw-colored—and very mild,” he says.
Though Hull won’t say how much mead he plans to make with Godlin’s sage blossom honey, managing the precious inventory of once-in-a-decade honey is part of the final product’s appeal. “I actually have one barrel of sage left over from the previous run and brewed a barrel this spring,” Hull says. Even for a product that was familiar to the ancient Egyptians, supply and demand remain marketplace factors. “The difficulty in obtaining it contributes to its popularity.”
Look for Heidrun’s California Sage Blossom sparkling mead this spring at their Point Reyes tasting room and at fine restaurants around the Bay Area.
