Sunshine Nectar and Traditional Mountain Honey Wine Both Win The Gold!

BOULDER, COLORADO - Redstone Meadery, a winery that makes honey wine known as mead, was awarded four medals at the 2003 International Mead Festival - Honey Wines of the World. The mead festival hosts the largest competition exclusively for commercial meads and collected the most experienced mead judges ever assembled.

David Myers, Chairman of the Mead and owner of Redstone Meadery states, "We are extremely proud to have received medals in as many categories as we did. The amount of commercial meads has grown tremendously so the competition was quite good. We are especially excited about winning the gold for Traditional against twenty one other meads entered in the category."

Redstone Meadery's four medals include: 1) Gold for Sunshine Nectar in the Hydromel/Braggot category; 2) Bronze for Black Raspberry Nectar in the Hydromel/Braggot category; 3) Gold for Traditional Mountain Honey Wine in the Traditional mead category; and 4) Silver for Pinot Noir Mountain Honey Wine in the Metheglin/Pyment category.

The competition, run by Ray Daniels editor of Zymurgy Magazine and organizer of the Real Ale Festival, judged each mead based on a 100 point system. A gold, silver and bronze medal was awarded to the top three scoring meads in each category. This type of judging is a combination of how both commercial beer and commercial wines are judged.

Mead Judge and Director of the Association of Brewers Paul Gatza stated, "I met many passionate mead lovers who came from all over to enjoy the International Mead Festival. This event has to be the greatest collection of commercial meads ever assembled. I can't wait until next year."

A total of 61 commercial meads from seven different countries were judged in ten different categories that included: Braggot - honeywine with malt; Dessert Mead - honeywine 14% alcohol or over; Hydromel- honeywine 10% alcohol or below; Melomel - honeywine using fruit excluding apples or grapes; Metheglin - honeywine made with any herbs, spices; Pyment - honeywine made with grapes/grape juice; Tej - An Ethiopian-style honey wine with hops/spices being an evident flavor; Traditional - honeywine not from a single variety of honey; Varietal - honeywine made from single-bloom or varietal honey.

Redstone Meadery opened in 2000, sells nine different types of mead and is one of the country's largest mead producers. The Meadery, located in Boulder, Colorado, has a tasting room attached to the production facility and offers free tours and tastings Monday through Saturday.

See www.meadfest.com for a complete list of entries and awards. The 2004 International Mead Festival - Honey Wines of the World is slated to happen in November in Boulder, Colorado.