Three Great New Meads from Heldberg Meadworks!! (NY)

Helderberg Meadworks is among some of the best mead the east coast has to offer. For a long time, the owners, Peter and Kristen Voelker have made almost solely classic styled, traditional meads. And they've done a great job of it. But at the Hudson Berkshire Wine & Food Festival, they premiered three new meads that were one each better than the last.

Easily my favorite was the Helderberg Black Currant mead.This is a light and crisp mead made with local raw honey and New York state black currants. This semi-dry mead had touches of Riesling to it, with a lovely rush of currant, adding a crisp zesty ending to the enterprise. Light and delicate, and semi-sweet, it was absolutely fantastic!

Helderberg Cherry Vanilla is the meadery's first true dessert elixir. This mead has been aged for three years (with real vanilla beans) and it exudes classic honey aromas but with added layers of vanilla and cherry. Absolutely lovely.

As much as I loved the black currant the Helderberg Staghorn Mead was the biggest shocker. Helderberg calls it, "the ultimate locavore mead. It is made from local raw honey and local wild harvested staghorn sumac." What happens here is nothing short of amazing. The sumac gives the mead a crisp, lemon-like touch! Basically this tastes like sipping a very pretty white table wine blend. Fresh, easy to drink, perfect for salads, soups, chicken. An absolutely astonishing mead - but tell your friends its wine, they won't now the difference. Fantastic!

Congrats to Peter and Kristen! Amazing stuff!