The Bee-Side 2018
- Retail
- £20.00
- Member
- £16.00
- Case
- £120.00
- Case (Member)
- £96.00
- Varieties
- Grenache
- Vintage
- 2018
- Country
- France
- Region
- Roussillon
- Alcohol
- 14.3%
- Bottle Size
- 750ml
- Drinking Window
- 2020 - 2025
- Description
- The Bee-Side is our second label wine, made from 100% Grenache. – most of the grapes come from our Bac de Genievres and Coume de Roy vineyards, and The Bee-side also includes some fruit from some of Jean-Marc Lafage’s vines. The result is a wine with a harmonious blend of delicate yet expressive red fruits with hints of fennel and rosemary.
- Eyes
- A cheerful cherry red.
- Nose
- Bright cherry and raspberry 'fruit compote' notes with a touch of local herbs. A hint of vanilla oak is evident from one new oak barrel out of 4 barrels used.
- Mouth
- This year's Bee-side is savoury and rich, with a gentle fruit compote nose, a warming, easy-going palate, and gentle clove spice, livened with a twist of pithy tannin and a juicy acidity. A highly drinkable red, especially if served lightly chilled.
- Body
- medium
- Winemaking notes
- Our grapes were hand harvested, and then hand-sorted at the winery but the crop was healthy, and very little selection was needed. Our Grenache was emptied into upturned demi-muids (500L barrels) with the ends taken out. Some of the barrels picked after the rain were 'bled' to remove a small amount of juice, which was amalgamated to create one barrel of a very pale red. Around 50% of the barrels were fermented with 'whole bunches', and the rest were destemmed. The barrels were gently macerated in the cool of a refrigerated container, before being warmed up, inoculated with yeast, and gently punched down 2-3 times a day. After pressing the wine was drained into 500 L barrels, one new, and the others 1-4 years old, and aged for 18 months. We blended three of these barrels with the barrel of 'pale red' and a little bit of Jean-Marc's fine old vine Grenache to produce this year's Bee-side.
- Growing Conditions
- After a cool start to the year, a heat spike in May ensured a good flowering, and then a long dry period in July, August and September meant that we harvested a good yield of lovely ripe grapes in early October, and our last block from the Coume de Roy picked a few days after the first rain, but just before the heavens opened on the 14th October.
Reviews
Tamlyn Currin - JancisRobinson.com
https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastingsJuly 30, 2020
Big, audiously expressive nose of summer-berry fruits and pencil shavings and roses. Mouth-wateringly sweet and tangy red-berried fruit: redcurrants and strawberries and cherries. A veil of dustiness, almost like petrichor, graphite dust that settles gossamer-fine on the fruit. This is so yummy that I didn't spit. A happy wine that dances in your mouth. Slender, supple, wiry-bendy tannins. So expressive and friendly, but delivering some serious complexity at the same time. And, as an aside, delicious when lightly chilled! - 17.5
Tina Gellie - Decanter Magazine - January 2021
May 28, 2024
The second label is 100% Grenache, with grapes from estate vineyards plus old-vine fruit from neighbour Domaine Lafage. Vibrant, crunchy, raspberry, blood plums, peppery garrigue herbs and vanilla spice from 18 months in barrel. Whole-bunch use gives stemmy freshness and sappy tannins. Concentrated, moreish and delicious! - 93
Rosemary George MW - Taste Languedoc
https://tastelanguedoc.blogspot.com/2020/07/domaine-of-bee-their-latest-wines.htmlJuly 17, 2020
Medium colour. A dry nose but with lovely ripe Grenache fruit on the palate, with a firm streak of tannin on the finish. Essentially lots of cherry fruit on palate; quite ripe and fleshy, and very Grenache.