MELROSE — While meaderies aren’t as common as breweries or wineries, fans of the honey-based beverage in Douglas County have long been able to get their fix at Oran Mor Artisan Mead.
Now, those mead drinkers will have to look elsewhere. After nearly 10 years of business in Roseburg, the meadery announced it is moving its production closer to Portland and closing down its Roseburg tasting room after Dec. 31.
The Roseburg tasting room is located at 305 Melrose Road. The company is in the process of opening a new tasting room in Portland’s Sellwood area, located at 8011 SE 13th Ave.
According to Oran Mor co-owner Michael Garcia, the move was motivated by both a rent increase and a desire to have a more visible and accessible storefront.
“There’s a lot more foot traffic,” Garcia said about Portland. “My location here in Roseburg is actually a little challenging to find. The driveway is odd.”
Oran Mor’s origins go back years ago, when Garcia’s partner and co-owner Lilly Weichberger spent time living in England and developed a taste for authentic European meads. When she returned to her home in Flagstaff, Ariz., she couldn’t find any she liked.
This drove Weichberger to go to a winemaking school and learn how to home brew her own mead, which eventually grewing into a business venture. Garcia said the decision to settle in Roseburg was something of a happy accident.
“We never actually planned on having a tasting room here very long, anyway,” Garcia said. “Our original plan was to move to Ashland and open a tasting room there, but with property costs and the like, (Roseburg) kept working, and we made it into a community space.”
Over the years, Oran Mor consistently netted itself wins at the top mead competitions in not just the U.S., but the world. According to meadery owners, they have taken home several gold, silver and bronze medals at the National Honey Board Mead Crafters Competition.
In 2020, they set a new personal record and caught the eye of mazers, or mead brewers, around the world when they took home a gold medal at the 2020 Mazer Cup International Mead Competition, for their dark, spiced Odin’s Eye brew.
But beyond the international fame and world-class mead brewing, Oran Mor became a community gathering space for their base of operations. The Roseburg tasting room consistently hosted open mic nights, live performances, board game nights, burlesque shows, farmers markets and even a handful of pig roasts.
For drummer and singer Jonathan Clark, who says his band Rovers and Dragon played at least 50 performances at Oran Mor over the years, the news of the meadery’s move is bittersweet.
“I was very pleased for them that they had branched out into Portland … there was a sense of loss, I must admit. They have been very, very good indeed for the whole community.”
Despite the move, Douglas County fans can still get their fix. The company announced it will consistently offer its mead and host collaboration events at The Secret Wine Society in Oakland, located at 110 SE 1st St.
As a way to say goodbye, the tasting room is hosting a Last Hurrah New Year’s Eve Party from 5-9 p.m. Dec. 31.
To learn more about Oran Mor and the New Year’s Eve party, visit oranmormead.com.
