Sweeten Your Romance with Meade, the Irish Wine of Love

Celebrate your wedding in the traditional Irish style and enjoy meade, the original wine of love. Known as the Irish aphrodisiac, it is the wine of passion that's traditionally served at weddings. Now that Irish tradition will become a U.S. custom as our melting pot of lovers finally has the opportunity to experience meade.

Marrying pure honey and the fruit of the vine, Bunratty Meade is the drink of choice for all nuptial ceremonies. It is a delicate yet potent drink made from a traditional fermented honey recipe and also contains white wine. Meade has been enjoyed throughout Irish history to promote the well being of newlyweds and is the fire and flame that fuels desire in young couples.

Old Irish tales suggest that brides and grooms consumed meade for one full moon after their wedding, hence the term "honeymoon." If the couple had a child nine months later, the conception was attributed to the powers of meade. It is also enjoyed during the wedding ceremony, and as each Irish wedding ends, the bride and groom are toasted with meade and serenaded with traditional songs and poems. Meade is the key to successful marriages and Bunratty Meade will give your love life a jumpstart even if you aren't tying the knot.

Produced at the Bunratty Winery in the shadow of the famous 15th Century Bunratty Castle in County Clare, Ireland, the celebratory honey wine is available in several sizes including a 750 ml bottle ($13.99) and 750 ml ($22.99), 375 ml ($21.99) and 100 ml ($11.99) crocks.

Bunratty Meade is imported by A.V. Imports, Inc., a Columbia, Md.-based national wine and spirit importer, which has been in business since 1986. The company imports wines and spirits from Australia, Chile, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia and Spain, and sells them to licensed wholesalers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Aruba and Bahamas. For more information, visit www.avimports.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

SIDEBAR

In traditional Irish weddings, family and friends gather around the bride and groom with Bunratty Meade-filled glasses to wish the newlyweds good luck. The bride and groom then offer them this toast:

Friends and relatives, so fond and dear,

'Tis our great pleasure to have you here.

When many years this day have passed,

Fondest memories will always last.

So we drink a cup of Irish meade,

And ask God's blessing in your hour of need.

The family and guests in the wedding party then raise their glass of Bunratty Meade and respond:

On this your special day,

Our wish to you the goodness of the old, the best of the new.

God bless you both who drink this meade;

May He always fill your every need.