Marlborough Summer: A Mead Shaped by the Sounds

In the Marlborough Sounds, summer is sunny pristine beeches where forested hills fall sharply into sheltered bays. Holiday homes cling to ridgelines, many reachable only by boat. The air carries salt from the open sea and warmth rising from sunlit bush. It is a landscape defined by light, water and native forest.

Marlborough Summer begins there.

The honey for this release was gathered from hives placed among the natural bush of the Sounds. Bees forage across flowering trees and shrubs that thrive in this coastal microclimate. Long daylight hours, dry heat and steady sea breezes shape what blooms and when. The result is honey with a gentle, rounded sweetness and a clarity that feels distinctly coastal.

When we ferment that honey, we are not creating flavour from scratch. We are revealing what the landscape has already written into it.

A Different Way to Taste Marlborough

Marlborough is known around the world for wine. Its valleys and coastal slopes have built an international reputation for clarity, intensity and precision of flavour. That reputation belongs to the landscape as much as it does to the grapes. The same climate, the same sun and the same wind moving off the sea also shape the flowering bush and the nectar gathered by bees.

Marlborough Summer offers another way to taste the region. Not through vines, but through honey drawn from forested hills overlooking the Sounds.

Grapes are one expression of place. Honey is another. Both begin in sunlight. Both carry the character of their environment. In this release, that character comes entirely from the honey itself.

Shaped by the Sounds

The Marlborough Sounds are folded hills, deep inlets and pockets of native vegetation. Access can be difficult. Weather shifts quickly. Beekeepers work steep terrain and remote sites to position hives where the bush is healthy and flowering.

Those conditions matter. The relative isolation of the Sounds helps preserve native flora. The coastal climate tempers extremes. Together, they influence nectar composition and therefore the structure of the honey. Subtle differences in plant species, soil and exposure translate into texture and tone in the finished mead.

We ferment gently and allow time to clarify and settle. No flavourings are added. No extracts. The aim is to keep the expression of place intact.

What Summer Tastes Like

Marlborough Summer sits at 13% ABV with a gently sweet profile. It is not heavy. It is not syrupy. The sweetness feels relaxed rather than assertive, like a late afternoon that stretches longer than expected.

There is warmth from the honey and a clean finish shaped by careful fermentation. Served lightly chilled, by fridge or ice. It pairs easily with fresh seafood, soft cheeses and anything that welcomes a touch of natural sweetness.

It is a mead made for open windows and bare feet on timber decks.

A Seasonal Release

This batch is limited because honey is seasonal. It depends on flowering cycles, weather patterns and the work of Marlborough beekeepers. We produce Marlborough Summer only when the harvest allows it.

That limitation is ecological rather than strategic. The volume reflects what the landscape provides in a given season.

Each year will differ slightly. That variation is part of the point.

A Broader Expression of Place

At Undisturbed, we believe flora defines flavour. New Zealand’s forests and landscapes the source that can best be encapsulated by honey mead.

Marlborough Summer extends that idea into one of the country’s most recognisable regions. It sits comfortably alongside Marlborough’s global reputation while offering a new perspective on it.

If you are familiar with Marlborough through wine, this is an invitation to encounter it differently.

Marlborough Summer is available in limited quantities. Explore the release and taste the Sounds for yourself.