Haute honey – the oenophile’s stealthiest status symbol

If you really want to know who’s well-connected in the wine world, then survey their breakfast table. A jar of honey from a top wine estate is the oenophile’s stealthiest status symbol.

Champagne Billecart-Salmon reserves all the honey from its top vineyard Clos Saint-Hilaire for friends and a few lucky guests. So I was delighted to find a jar pressed into my hands after a recent dinner. The gift was particularly apt as only a few hours earlier I had been standing in the pretty walled vineyard watching the Billecart-Salmon bees swarm. They clung in a liquid, boiling mass to one of the Pinot Noir vines (my mother kept bees when I was young, so I was not alarmed).

Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, 2007

Billecart-Salmon Clos Saint-Hilaire Miel du Rucher

“The bees have become part of the family of the Clos Saint-Hilaire, much like the horse that ploughs the soil and the sheep that graze the grass,” says CEO Mathieu Roland-Billecart. “We come to visit them sometimes and have a little chat as it is on our way to the glasshouse where we make all our biodynamic preparations.”

The honey is even more of a unicorn than their celebrated wine

The Clos’ one hectare of vines is co-planted with clover, herbs and fruit trees that imbue the honey with bright citrusy notes and a slight toastiness. For the ultimate champagne breakfast, pair it with the recently released Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Le Clos Saint-Hilaire 2007 – a sublime blanc de noirs with notes of perfumed baklava, grapefruit sorbet and rich crystallised honey.

A rare chance to taste the honey from Château Cheval Blanc in St Émilion is at the annual friends-and-family harvest day, where it is served at breakfast in the winery alongside jams, cheese and charcuterie, all grown or raised on the estate. Each little jar of this floral honey is illustrated with the vintage, the season and a little pair of secateurs (a tool one gets to know intimately, as the day progresses). 

The renowned Tuscan estate Petrolo has kept bees for many years. “The honey jar on the table with the orange label is one of the first memories I have,” says fourth-generation boss Rocco Sanjust. “Our millefiori [wildflower] honey has scents of wildflowers, daisies, lavender and olive leaf.” The amber-gold honey is named Miele di Galatrona after the single-vineyard Merlot that made this family winery famous.

Honey, like wine, tastes different, depending on the terroir. Its flavour also changes depending on the time of year. Top Brunello producer Il Marroneto has hives overlooking the Val d’Orcia. “Our hives give us amazingly fragrant honey that replicates the season,” says third-generation proprietor Iacopo Mori. “In the late spring, for example, the dominant flowers are acacia, broom and cherry. If we draw the honey in later summer, it tends to be more aromatic thanks to the chestnut, sage and rosemary.” The honey is not for sale and only shared with the lucky few – making it even more of a unicorn, ironically, than their celebrated wine.

Bee hives are dotted through many of Jackson Family Wines’ northern Californian estates. The honey served at Kendall-Jackson’s ticketed Farm-to-Table dinners comes from hives in the “culinary garden” adjoining their Fulton Ranch Vineyard, in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley.

“One hive leans to more floral notes and is bright and fresh,” says Tucker Taylor, the gardens’ director. “Another hive has a bit more depth of flavour with a nice balance of sweetness and tanginess with a slight vegetal quality – a nod to the terroir of the Russian River Valley of Sonoma wine country. Our guests are often surprised at how different the honey tastes.”

Babylonstoren Orange Blossom honey, R160 (about £6.88)

Quinta da Manoella nectar honey

The stunning Babylonstoren farm and vineyard in South Africa’s Western Cape sells a range of very different-tasting honeys sourced from hives around its Franschhoek estate. Each one – fynbos, macadamia and orange blossom – reflects the prevailing plant life in that particular area. There is also an “observation beehive” for visitors who want to get up close and personal with the bees, and a garden apiary showcasing different types of hives. If you intend to take honey overseas, check the customs and quarantine rules at your destination before you fly.

In a bid to improve biodiversity, more vineyards than ever now keep bees. Quinta da Manoella in Portugal’s Pinhão valley has more than 30 hives (before an attack of Asian hornets it had more than 100) across the 40 hectares of forest and olive groves surrounding its vineyards. “Understanding how the bees work is inspiring for our life,” says winemaker Jorge Serôdio Borges. “When we watch them flying on our vineyards it’s a great sign. When we see the hives becoming full of honey and the bee population growing we are so grateful, because the bees don’t lie.” 

@alicelascelles