What is a Bee Friendly wine?

24/06/2021

Since 2014 some of our vineyards are labeled Bee Friendly. This European label has the particularity of indicating products from an agriculture that respects pollinating insects, and bees in particular.

Beekeepers are at the origin of this label, in order to highlight farmers who are concerned with the preservation of biodiversity.

The label is not the most well known by consumers, who will primarily go for organic products. However, it meets the demand for an agriculture that preserves the environment and health. It is controlled by the beekeepers themselves, which guarantees the independence and intransigence of the label.

The consumer knows that when a wine displays the Bee Friendly logo on its label, its winemaker is truly committed to environmental awareness.

Wines for the protection of bees

A Bee Friendly wine is a wine made from grapes without products that are harmful to pollinating insects, especially bees. It is important to know that bees are particularly sensitive to pesticides, especially insecticides.

The winegrowers who are committed to the Bee Friendly approach have really changed their agricultural practices. For example, our winegrowers no longer use neonicotinoids, which are particularly toxic to bees.

Our winegrowers even go so far as to get up at night to carry out certain treatments that are mandatory by prefectural decree - they are fined if they don't do so - when the bees are in the hive and protected so that they are not exposed.

We can thus propose AOC Buzet red wines certified Bee Friendly.

red-wines-bee-friendly-buzet-aoc

A label extended to wine

Originally, the label concerned fruit and vegetable and dairy production. It has been extended to wine thanks to our strong interest and involvement in the development of the French wine industry.

Since 2014 we have worked with the beekeepers behind this label, which aims to safeguard bees, and built with the National Union of French Beekeeping the reference specifications for French winegrowing, applied to all PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication).

The vineyard manager of our cooperative, Carine Magot, is a member of the scientific committee of the label.

Beehives in our Buzet winegrowers' vineyards

In 2016 we installed our first four beehives on the Buzet Winegrowers vineyard, at Domaine de Gueyze. Even if the vine does not need to be pollinated by bees, these hives are very useful to us. In addition to reinforcing the exchanges between our wine growers and the beekeepers of the region, they are true sentinels of our agriculture. Pollinators, which are very sensitive to insecticides, are invaluable indicators of environmental quality.

We track the health of the bee colony in real time through a connected system and have seen the beneficial link between our sustainable farming practices and the health of the bees. The bees are particularly fond of the melliferous plants, which are attractive to bees, planted in our vineyard.