When wine is your trade and passion, it is also your reference. Recently, I have been chatting quite a bit to bakers and have noticed the similarities between bread and wine when it comes to fermentation, taste and texture. The same happens when you speak to olive oil producers and beekeepers and this week, we had a wonderful opportunity to taste honey with the same terroir as our La Motte wines. It was quite an experience.
As we are busy with renovations at La Motte estate, we found that a swarm of bees that has been living in one of the estate’s ancient oaks were becoming a danger to themselves and guests and we decided to relocate them. As we’ve been working quite closely with honey sommelier, Natasha Lyon, for a while now, we called on her expertise as well as those of Deane Woollam, an expert in removing and rescuing bees.
Natasha describes the process better than I can, so I quote her Instagram post:
“What a day!! I am in my happy place. I spent most of the morning observing this amazing capensis bee relocation from an old Oak Tree in Franschhoek, estimated to be well over 100 years old. We could see very dark old comb in the cavity and a sheet of propolis covering the top of the nest. Well done Deane and Jaco.
This was not an easy relocation and our leading lady, Mrs Queen bee, proved somewhat elusive. She was spotted a few fleeting moments but managed to stay hidden in the many crevices inside the hollow branch. We also spotted three queen cells and the large brood pattern was impressive and healthy looking. We were even treated to seeing the birth of a new little worker bee. Fascinating!