- Description
- Our Flagship red is made from our best barrels of Grenache and Carignan, and this vintage is classified as Maury Sec.
The vineyards are the same, the grapes taste the same, but we've upped the Grenache component to 60%.
- Eyes
- A bright, vibrant red.
- Nose
- A big ripe nose brimming with red fruit wild strawberry, cherry, and red plum. And there's some sweet vanilla oak and cinnamon spice.
- Mouth
- Inviting and charming, there's a brightness and elegance that belies the power underneath. The tannins are refreshing and supple, and as the wine opens out in the glass, the purity and expression of the fruit unfolds in a long satisfying finish. There's enough weight and power here to give this a full 10 years of life
- Body
- full
- Winemaking notes
- All our grapes for Domaine of the Bee were hand harvested, and then hand-sorted at the winery to ensure we only chose the healthiest and ripest grapes. The first Carignan to be picked is fermented in a stainless steel tank. The rest of the Carignan, and all of the Grenache is cold-macerated in upturned demi-muids (500L barrels) with the ends taken out, before being warmed up, inoculated with yeast, and gently punched down 2-3 times a day. After pressing, all of the wine was drained into a mixture of 500L and 225L barrels, approximately a quarter of which are new, and left to mature for 16 months.
- Growing Conditions
- 2020 was a year marked by an extremely wet spring with intermittent rain throughout the early summer creating uncharacteristic problems with damp humid conditions. Nevertheless, by the time summer finally arrived, with a lot of moisture in the soil, the vines grew like crazy, and produced a good-sized crop of extremely tasty grapes.