Golden Coast Mead Takes Home Two Gold Medals in USA Wine Ratings Competition
Golden Coast Mead Takes Home Gold Medal in USA Wine Ratings Competition
San Diego, California, USA 20NOV2020 - Something Something Sour and Wildflower Sour received a Gold medal from a panel of high-profile wine industry judges. Something Something Sour and Wildflower Sour scored highly in three different categories - Quality, Value and Packaging - in order to take home a medal in competition. Winning a Gold medal at the USA Wine Ratings Competition is the ultimate seal of approval, showing that Something Something Sour and Wildflower Sour is a high-quality wine with broad consumer appeal.
One of the guiding principles of the USA Wine Ratings competition is that all wines that receive medals in competition should be those that consumers actually want to buy, whether it is shopping for a wine at a retail wine store, or ordering a wine off a restaurant wine list. As a result, the USA Wine Ratings competition has created an entirely new 100-point rating system that takes into account three different criteria (Quality, Value and Packaging) rather than just winemaking technique or overall taste.
In order to receive a Gold medal, a wine needed to score at least 90 points.
“We’re really excited that our Something Something Sour and Wildflower Sour scored so highly on the various factors that determine the drinkability of a wine,” said Frank Golbeck. “We really put a lot of emphasis on creating a wine with broad consumer appeal, and one that wine drinkers will enjoy for a variety of different occasions. This award is really a validation of our winemaking expertise.”
Sid Patel, CEO and Founder of Beverage Trade Network, emphasized the importance of finding wines that score highly across all three categories rather than just one, “We feel that it offers a broad, comprehensive approach to evaluating wines the same way that consumers and trade buyers do.”
“Increasingly, consumers are thinking of wines as brands, just like they would any other product they find in a supermarket,” said Patel. “That’s why it was so important to include Packaging & Presentation as a key judging criteria - it means that the wine is being created with a specific type of customer or demographic in mind.”
The judging panel included wine industry professionals with commercial buying expertise, master sommeliers and master’s of wine. The inclusion of so many high-profile judges ensured that wines awarded medals in competition were those with a high degree of commercial appeal.
About Frank Golbeck
After serving as an Officer in the Navy for five years, Frank Golbeck left the military to pursue his passion of creating high quality mead (honey wine). As he explains, “I wanted to do something that made a small part of the earth more bountiful. I wanted to do something that contributed to the happiness of others.
I realized that I would be at my happiest farming, and sharing the goodness of good work on good land with the people I was lucky enough to encounter.”
In 2010, Frank and his two business partners, one of whom is also a veteran, started Golden Coast Mead in San Diego, CA. Golden Coast Mead has grown by leaps and bounds, and the demand for Frank’s mead have been increasing exponentially. In the beginning of 2013, Golden Coast Mead expanded into their own production facility, further increasing the amount of mead produced. Frank and his partners source all of their honey from CA farmers and in the future hope to source all of their honey from San Diego based farmers.
In the winter of 2011, Frank received a Bon Appétit Good Food Fellowship through the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund. The Fellowship Fund helped him start 23 beehives on family property, allowing Frank and his partners to create estate mead. Frank’s family has farmed for many years and his grandfather taught him to make mead as a young adult. As a Bon Appétit Good Food Fellow, Frank is carrying on his family’s tradition, and serving as an example for other veterans who strive to be small business owners.
About USA Wine Ratings
The 3rd Annual USA Wine Ratings competition took place in San Francisco this October. Winners were evaluated based on three separate criteria - Quality, Value and Packaging - and assigned a score out of 100 possible points. The organizer of the event is Beverage Trade Network (BTN), which also hosts industry events around the world and owns media assets and platforms to connect the drinks industry globally.