The humming bass of the estate.
The flying laboratory
Three hives between the pond, the brook and the wildflower meadow. What they bring in, we had tested for more than 360 substances.
At the edge of the vines.
The hives stand where woodland, meadow and vineyard meet. In summer you can hear them from far off.
The nature of the estate
Bees gather data while they gather nectar.
Living wine grows on living soil. That is quickly said, so we looked for a test we cannot influence ourselves. A single bee visits thousands of blossoms in a day and carries a minute amount away from each one. Over a season that yields a composite sample of our land that nobody steers — Apis mellifera works to its own plan.
Our three colonies stand between the pond, the small brook and the wildflower meadow. In winter a hive numbers around 15,000 bees, at the height of summer up to 200,000. Because the estate offers enough across its nineteen hectares of woodland, meadow and vines, the colonies stay close by: what ends up in the jar comes from here. How nature and terroir connect here is set out at greater length elsewhere.
No residues detectable.
The usual standard test covers around sixty substances. We sent a sample instead to Primoris in France, a laboratory specialising in residue analysis, and had it tested for more than 360.
The result for batch 24/044439: no glyphosate, no fungicides, no neonicotinoids — 0.00 mg/kg. The report is open to read. The estate has moreover been designated a protected natural site (Site Classé) since 30 December 1975, and we work with as little intervention as possible.
“No residues detectable.”Primoris laboratory report, batch 24/044439
Three harvests a year, three different honeys.
We harvest three times, and each harvest tastes of its season. Late April brings the acacia honey: pale, almost clear, liquid, with a fine floral sweetness. Summer follows with the honey of the wildflower meadow, amber, firmer in texture, with hay and warm herbs. In autumn comes the late harvest, dark, malty and intense, shaped by the woodland edges and by the late-flowering ivy.
That we think in movements has its reason here — with honey too we find it easy to speak of an opening, a crescendo and a finale.
Around 300 jars a year.
The Miel des Vignes of the Domaine aux Conseillans is a small harvest, and for that reason it is not in the online shop. We share it out on two principles.
Regional responsibility. Part of it goes to local organic cooperatives here in the Gironde: short distances, producers from the neighbourhood.
For friends of the house. The remaining allocation is reserved for private customers, for partners in the restaurant trade and for the members of Le Cercle. It is our way of saying thank you.
Further reading.
How we treat this land, and what we measure it against.
Nineteen hectares, three colonies of bees and a laboratory report we are glad to show.