It is amazing to see in 2015, that after 20 years in business, we have gone from as few as four or five commercial mead producers (other wineries making honey wine) and Rabbits Foot Meadery, to as many as 150-180 commercial meaderies in the US. I have seen half as many as that go out of business but the numbers still increase. So for every one that goes away two more start up. Some highlights from 20 years in the business. We are now in our fourth business location, recently purchased the whole building so we can grow into the space as needed. We have consulted with half a dozen commercial meaderies helping them get started from New Zealand to England and in between. We have won about 95 medals and ribbons, not including all the gold mazer cup and IMA medals that were stolen. We have been distributed in as many as 32 states in the US. Japan and Ireland. We purposely scaled back our distribution about seven years ago to focus on the west coast. So now (with the exception of Florida) you can only find us in WA, OR, HI, CA, AZ, NV and Ireland. We pioneered several categories of mead, introducing what we believe was at the time the first commercial braggot and the first commercial cyser. We produce the countries oldest barrel aged commercially available mead, The Mead of Poetry, this year it will be released at 16 years of age. I have one bottle of 20y ear old Mead of Poetry. Many who were at the UC David class got to try the 15. We have been profitable for 8 years. Have business zero debt and have been consistently growing at 30-40% per year. We turned down offers to get bought by large booze businesses twice. Maybe the third time is the charm :-) We are awaiting shipment of our new tanks which will add on an additional 100,000 gallons a year of capacity to our existing 60,000 gallon capacity. Id like to thank the other early pioneers in the world of mead not least of which is John Bargetto, who really is responsible for the first real commercially viable mead in America. Gordon Hull of Heidrun, for starting one of the most well known sparkling meads in the US if not the world. He too will be celebrating 20 years in 2017 +-. David Myers, for seeing a niche and sticking to it with his brand - Redstone Meadery Nectars - the first commercial sparkling session meads and the first hopped mead. Ron and Peggy Fulder - Mountain Meadows. Simply great mead. What more need be said. To everyone else that has had a hand in the creation of the mead universe, thanks to you too. In celebration of our 20th year in business we will be releasing several new versions of our cysers, braggots and meads. We will be staggering them through out the year and if they are a success then we might just keep making them. We already released the first of them for the holidays - Johnny Jump Up, a dry hopped cyser. Lots of new and innovative products on the schedule. I look forward to the next 20 years and believe that there is still room for many more new startups in the world of mead. As they say, a rising tide floats all boats. My oldest daughter joined the company after she graduated from UC Davis and is learning the ropes - everything from the ground up. Thanks also to our employees. We couldnt have done it without you. Who would have thought that a kid from the bog in Ireland would end up owning one of the largest businesses of its kind in the world. Sheesh. And finally, thanks to my wonderful wife. You are the reason I make mead. Mead of Poetry, Odin, Melia are all for you.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 00:22:14 +0000
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