Bee d’Vine, a new California honey wine “for wine drinkers,” was announced today by Ayele Solomon, founder of The Honey Wine Company, LLC.
“Under the guidance of veteran Napa winemaker, Wayne Donaldson, we tested our dry and semi-sweet fermentation trials with wine drinkers over the last four years and produced a very floral wine using only fresh, raw local honey and spring water while employing original production methods that includes at least ten months of aging,” Solomon said.
The announcement was simultaneous with the release of a book, “The Celebrated Story of Honey Wine” (hardcopy Amazon, $10, and free e-book and audiobook on the book website DiscoverHoneyWine.org), which traces the 8,000-year recorded history of the first known alcoholic beverage.
Solomon was born in Ethiopia and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. In Ethiopia, honey wine, or t’ej, remains the preferred alcoholic beverage. The illustrated book includes some of the hundreds of words for honey wine: “mede,” for example, is Flemish and shares the root with the English “mead.”
Bee d’Vine comes in a Brut and Demi Sec version. Limited quantities are available through the wine website BeeDvine.com – 375ml version at $24, 750s at $43, and the Limited Edition 3L Double Magnum at $335 of which only 12 Brut and 12 Demi Sec bottles were produced in Bee d’Vine’s maiden 2013 vintage.
The Honey Wine Company has a novel “Keep the Wine” guarantee on 375ml wine; customers can request a refund (minus shipping cost) without returning the bottle. For more information please visit www.beedvine.com
