International Wine Champion
By: Ben Manning
Updated: June 8, 2010
FLINTON, CAMBRIA COUNTY - The town of Flinton, in Cambria County only has a few hundred people living there, but one man is an international champion amateur wine maker. His Orange Mead was just named the best overall wine out of more than four thousand bottles from eight countries.
Don Dixon started making wine about 15 years ago. And he started making mead, which is made from honey; about six years ago after a friend encouraged him. The challenge makes mead his favorite wine to make. He says a lot can go wrong with mead, it takes two years to mature, and you have to have a lot of patience.
Now all that patience has been rewarded. After he sent his Orange Mead to the Winemaker’s International Amateur’s Wine Competition. He got a call from a judge says he not only won the top mead entry, but the best overall wine out of 4,508 wines from 8 different countries and every state in the nation.
That award tops off his 30 amateur awards, and he's got plans to expand. Dixon hopes to break ground in the area behind his garage so he'll have more room to make wine and start selling professionally. He's started talking to a bank about getting financing. He's going to produce dry reds and whites, fruit wines, and of course his award winning mead. Right now he ends up giving most of it away to friends and family. But he says he'll have no problem selling it, because a good wine sells it self.
Don Dixon started making wine about 15 years ago. And he started making mead, which is made from honey; about six years ago after a friend encouraged him. The challenge makes mead his favorite wine to make. He says a lot can go wrong with mead, it takes two years to mature, and you have to have a lot of patience.
Now all that patience has been rewarded. After he sent his Orange Mead to the Winemaker’s International Amateur’s Wine Competition. He got a call from a judge says he not only won the top mead entry, but the best overall wine out of 4,508 wines from 8 different countries and every state in the nation.
That award tops off his 30 amateur awards, and he's got plans to expand. Dixon hopes to break ground in the area behind his garage so he'll have more room to make wine and start selling professionally. He's started talking to a bank about getting financing. He's going to produce dry reds and whites, fruit wines, and of course his award winning mead. Right now he ends up giving most of it away to friends and family. But he says he'll have no problem selling it, because a good wine sells it self.
