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If you really want to know who is well connected in the wine world, then examine their breakfast table. A jar of honey from a top winery is the oenophile’s most hidden status symbol.
Billecart-Salmon Champagne He reserves all the honey from his main vineyard, Clos Saint-Hilaire, for his friends and a few lucky guests, so I was delighted to find a jar in my hands after a recent dinner party. The gift was particularly appropriate, as only hours earlier I had been standing in the beautiful walled vineyard watching the Billecart-Salmon bees swarm. They clung in a liquid, boiling mass to one of the Pinot Noir vines (my mother kept bees when I was young, so I was not alarmed).
Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, 2007
Billecart-Salmon Clos Saint-Hilaire Honey du Rucher
“Bees have become part of the Clos Saint-Hilaire family, like the horse that ploughs the land and the sheep that graze the grass,” explains general manager Mathieu Roland-Billecart. “Sometimes we go and visit them and have a chat, as it is the way to the greenhouse where we make all our biodynamic preparations.”
The Clos’ hectare of vines is planted with clover, herbs and fruit trees that lend the honey bright citrus notes and a light toasty touch. For a perfect Champagne breakfast, pair it with the Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Le Clos Saint-Hilaire 2007, a sublime blanc de noirs with notes of perfumed baklava, grapefruit sorbet and rich crystallized honey.
A unique opportunity to taste honey from Cheval Blanc Castle At St Émilion, the annual harvest day is celebrated among friends and family, where it is served for breakfast in the cellar alongside jams, cheeses and charcuterie, all grown or raised on the estate. Each little jar of this floral honey is illustrated with the vintage, the season and a small pair of pruning shears (a tool that one gets to know intimately as the day progresses).
The famous Tuscan estate Gasoline has been keeping bees for many years. “The jar of honey with the orange label on the table is one of my earliest memories,” says Rocco Sanjust, the fourth-generation boss. “Our millefiori [wildflower] The honey has aromas of wildflowers, daisies, lavender and olive leaves.” The golden-amber honey is called Miele di Galatrona in honor of the single-vineyard Merlot that made this family-owned winery famous.
Honey, like wine, tastes different depending on the terroir. Its flavour also changes depending on the time of year. Il Marroneto, the leading producer of Brunello, has hives overlooking the Orcia Valley. “Our hives give us incredibly fragrant honey that replicates the season,” says third-generation owner Iacopo Mori. “In late spring, for example, the dominant flowers are acacia, broom and cherry. If we extract the honey in late summer, it tends to be more aromatic thanks to chestnut, sage and rosemary.” The honey is not for sale and is only shared with a lucky few, making it, ironically, an even bigger unicorn than its celebrated wine.
Bee hives are spread across many of Jackson Family Wines‘ Northern California farms. The honey served at Kendall-Jackson’s farm-to-table dinners comes from hives in the “culinary garden” adjacent to its Fulton Ranch vineyard in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley.
“One Hive has more floral notes and is bright and fresh,” says Tucker Taylor, director of the gardens. “Another Hive has a bit more depth of flavor with a nice balance of sweetness and acidity with a slight vegetal quality, a nod to the terroir of the Russian River Valley of Sonoma wine country. Our guests are often surprised at how different the honey tastes.”
Babylonstoren Orange Blossom Honey, R160 (about £6.88)
Quinta da Manoella nectar honey
The impressive Tents of Babylon A farm and vineyard in South Africa’s Western Cape sells a range of very different flavoured honeys from hives around its Franschhoek estate. Each of them – fynbos, macadamia and orange blossom – reflects the predominant plant life in that particular area. There is also a “viewing hive” for visitors who want to get up close to the bees and an apiary in the garden displaying different types of hives. If you intend to take honey abroad, check the customs and quarantine regulations at your destination before you fly.
In a bid to improve biodiversity, more vineyards than ever are now staffed with bees. Quinta da Manoella in Portugal’s Pinhão Valley has more than 30 hives (before an attack by Asian hornets it had more than 100) spread across the 40 hectares of forest and olive groves surrounding its vineyards. “Understanding how bees work is an inspiration for our lives,” says winemaker Jorge Serôdio Borges. “When we see them flying over our vineyards it’s a great sign. When we see the hives filling up with honey and the bee population growing, we feel very grateful, because bees don’t lie.”