Our Story –
Mike Collins began his journey as a home brewer where the love of fermentation first took hold. Within Walla Walla’s booming wine industry in the early 2000’s he joined the industry as a cellar rat and bottler for Signature bottling. After a few years getting to know the industry he moved on to begin attending the Center of Enology and Viticulture in 2013 where he graduated in 2015 with the honor of being on the production team that created College Cellars 2013 Award winning Merlot along with some other great viogniers as well. While attending the EV program Mike landed a position at Blue Mountain Cider/ Watermill Winery where he continued to perfect the craft of fermentation under the always helpful wings of some great cider and wine makers. Mike has also done bottling and harvest work for a large handful of other local wineries such as Cougar crest and Mark Ryan and still holds a great deal of respect from all places that helped influence him into the brewer he has become. The focus on honey wine was a natural one, seeing how Mike was raised partially in a farm environment of the country area of Oregon and was often around Bees and the bounty of their seasonal labors. Through Mike’s love of history, honey bees and fermentation the idea for the Bard & Bee was then born, in the hopes to serve Walla Walla with the granddaddy of all alcohol known as mead.
Product info
Our Mead combines the best of both new and old world brewing, specializing in a hybridization of current fermentation styles and an understanding of the traditional style of mead making to reinvigorate the popularity of this once ever present beverage. Most of our meads are dry to off dry, meaning although the honey backbone of the mead shows a bit of sweetness, it will hold little to no residual sugars. The focus on every mead is to showcase the hard work of the Bee, by focusing on where the honey is sourced to create unique wines that sing Terroir.
