In Ripeness (October 12), Jean-Luc Thunevin notes how in the last few days before the harvest, grapes are so ripe and screaming sugar that they get unwanted attention from wasps and other insects.
It made me ponder if there could be a connection between wine, bees and honey.
Exhibit 1 is The Honey Bees of Michel-Schlumberger Benchland Wine Estate (Culture of Wine, October 2008) which are really more the winemaker's wife (Barbara) project from what Mark Burns tells us.
Barbara created The Melissa Garden as a Honeybee Sanctuary.
She describes it as follows:
Valley. Two acres of gardens planted with honeybee forage are situated
in the center of a pristine 40-acre ranch that is lush with native
vegetation. The Melissa Garden is a new project that began in the fall
of 2007. It is being created to provide honeybees with a place to live
natural lives, insulated from known stressors, and nourished in a
beautiful setting. The garden is being thoughtfully designed and
planted with botanicals that offer year-round nectar and pollen sources
honeybees are known to favor."
They show us a confident man with bees (below, from their site).
Not sure I would dare do the same.
Exhibit 2 is Medovina, a Colorado Honey Wine maker.
They share the History of Mead (or honey wine) as told by Marc Beran, their meadmaster…
Some call this type of liquors the favorites of Gods.
One such drink in my native Brittany, Chouchen, is close to Hydromel which some trace back to the Druids.
There was a saying in my high school days that if you had more than 2 glasses of Chouchen you would start walking backwards.
I never saw it happen though.