{"id":1125,"date":"2010-08-26T21:34:16","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T21:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2010-08-26T21:34:16","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T21:34:16","slug":"domaine-of-the-bee-a-new-high-end-roussillon-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/grenache\/domaine-of-the-bee-a-new-high-end-roussillon-wine","title":{"rendered":"Domaine of the Bee: a new high-end Roussillon wine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/IMGP8885.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1124\" title=\"IMGP8885\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/IMGP8885.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"330\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago, Justin Howard-Sneyd, who was then in charge of wine at UK supermarket Waitrose, told me he had bought a small vineyard in the Roussillon, as a sort of hobby project. Justin is a competent guy, so I was\u00a0intrigued\u00a0&#8211; what sort of style would he go for?<\/p>\n<p>Then, a few weeks ago, Justin (who is now in charge of wines at Laithwaites) sent me two wines to try. His venture is called Domaine of the Bee (website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.domaineofthebee.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>), and it has got to the stage where he has more wine than he and his partners can sell through their network of friends.<\/p>\n<p>At 15% alcohol, these are big wines, made from old vine Grenache and Carignan. I liked the 2008 over the 2007 because it was fresher. They&#8217;re both very good, but I wonder whether picking slightly earlier might result in wines with more freshness and definition? But that&#8217;s a personal style issue, I suppose, and it seems a bit mean to criticise such impressive early releases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domaine of the Bee 2007 Vin de Pays \u00a0des Cotes Catalanes<br \/>\n<\/strong>15% alcohol. Lush, brooding, sweet dark cherry and plum nose with a stewed plum character. Ripe and slightly baked. Nice savoury twist to the sweet fruit. The palate is lush and broad with liqueur-like richness to the plum and blackberry fruit. There are spicy, leathery, savoury notes, with dry tannic structure. Warm and broad. 89\/100<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domaine of the Bee 2008 Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes<br \/>\n<\/strong>15% alcohol. Deep coloured. Vivid and powerful with dense blackberry and plum fruit and firm, spicy tannins. Concentrated and sweetly fruited but still fresh. It&#8217;s a bit like a dry vintage Port. The alcohol makes its mark, subduing the fruit characters on the nose a bit, but this is still a delicious wine in a modern mould. 91\/100<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re both available from the website, with the 2007 at \u00a318 and the 2008 at \u00a320, with discounts for multi-bottle orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of years ago, Justin Howard-Sneyd, who was then in charge of wine at UK supermarket Waitrose, told me he had bought a small vineyard in the Roussillon, as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,37],"tags":[376,56],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france","category-grenache","tag-france","tag-roussillon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}