A TYNEDALE couple have created a new drink to challenge champagne as the most popular upmarket fizz on the market. Luke and Suzie Hutchinson produce a sparkling mead called Sovereign Nectar. It is believed to be the first time a commercial sparkling mead has been made in the UK.

Self-confessed foodies, Luke and Suzie want their drink to be as popular as prosecco and champagne. They apply the traditional French champenoise method to make and bottle the mead at their new production line and tasting room at The Meadery, in Haltwhistle.

As well as sparkling Sovereign Nectar, they also produce a sister product which is a more traditional mead called Sovereign Nectar, Still.

The couple are commercial beekeepers running Northumberland Honey Co and honey is the key ingredient of mead.

Luke, who also works part time as a dentist, said: “We absolutely love being beekeepers, but we want to grow the company and introduce our own unique product.

“Mead is an under-rated drink in the UK, but we have refined the taste and created a light drink which tastes unlike any other mead or sparkling drink.

“Sovereign Nectar is a really important part of our long term business plan as commercial beekeepers. We already run training courses in beekeeping and sell honey and queen bees. But this is taking us to a new level. We have invested everything in it.”

They use all their own honey and estimate needing around two tonnes for their production target. That has meant increasing the number of their bee colonies from 40 to around 150 so that they have enough honey. The hives are all around the Tyne Valley.

They built all the new hives themselves by hand in the spring, then managed their bee colonies and extracted the honey, which are all very time consuming jobs. Luke and Suzie have been so busy they reckon they have had no more than four days off this year.

They have already achieved their first targets of selling Sovereign Nectar in time for the Christmas market, setting up a tasting room with a beekeeping observation hive for visitors and customers at the Meadery and taking on an apprentice. In 2017, they aim to sell 5,000 bottles.

Suzie has a doctorate in biomedical science and her understanding of chemistry has been vitally important. As well as experimenting to find the precise recipe and production system, they had to learn about licensing legislation and tackle the mountain of paperwork involved when producing a new alcoholic drink.

The couple met when they were students and the writing was on the wall when Luke asked Suzie to help him take hives to the heather moors on their second date.

“It was pitch black and I had to help him load and unload the hives from the back of the van. I spent a lot of time learning beekeeping from him. Now it only takes me a minute spotting if there’s problem with the bees,” said Suzie.

“Checking each hive needs to be done quickly and we are always at the mercy of the weather.”

They married in 2015 and spent much of their honeymoon visiting meaderies in the USA and meeting producers there.

“The USA has all the leading mead producers and they have massive mead competitions with around 30 different categories. Everyone does it differently,” said Suzie. “But as far as we know, this is the first time anyone in this country has made sparkling mead.”

Business success depends on the health and productivity of their bees.

“Like all beekeepers, our priority is healthy bees that are sustainable, placid, fertile, and good honey producers,” said Luke, who has been beekeeping for 12 years. “I never imagined being a bee farmer, but now I’m following my heart instead of my head. I’ll carry on with dentistry for as long as I need to but in a few years time I hope to be appearing on Countryfile as the country’s leading mead producer with a By Appointment Only sign outside the Meadery.”