Redstone Traditional Mountain Honey Wine
Boulder, Colorado
Honey, water and yeast with nothing else, at the strength most traditional mead is bottled. The category's baseline in a bottle.
In its favor
- ✓Three ingredients, no fruit or spice
- ✓Gluten-free
- ✓Sweetness level stated on the label, which is rarer than it should be
What to watch
- !Not vegan
- !Semi-sweet means meaningful residual sugar
Factor by factor
Congeners Moderate ▾
Byproducts of fermentation (methanol, acetaldehyde, fusel alcohols). Strongly linked to hangover severity; darker, less-distilled spirits carry more.
Histamines Moderate ▾
Produced by bacteria during fermentation/aging. Trigger flushing, headaches, congestion in sensitive drinkers. High in red wine, beer, aged spirits.
Polyphenols Low ▾
Plant compounds with antioxidant activity. Slightly protective at low doses but at high concentrations may worsen hangover via tannin/quercetin reactions.
Sulfites Low ▾
Preservatives (SO₂) added to wine and some beers. Common trigger of headaches, asthma, and allergic-type reactions.
Tannins Very Low ▾
Astringent polyphenols from skins, seeds, barrels. Bind proteins, slow alcohol clearance, and aggravate dehydration-style symptoms.
Sugar High ▾
Residual sugar amplifies hangover via blood-sugar swings and dehydration. Liqueurs and cocktails are the main offenders.
Additives Low ▾
Colorants, flavorings, glycerin, propylene glycol, sorbates. Cheap spirits and ready-to-drinks often hide these in trade-secret formulas.
This is what people mean by mead when they are not thinking of anything in particular: honey, water, yeast, around 12%, semi-sweet. It scores a 6, which is the honest middle of the category and the same score as a typical white wine.
Redstone label their sweetness, which sounds trivial and is not. Most mead does not, and residual sugar is the single largest chemistry variable in the category. A producer telling you where on the dry-to-dessert scale a bottle sits is giving you the one number that matters most.