From: Columbia Valley, WA, USA
Varietals: 60% Merlot, 17% Malbec, 12% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petite Sirah
Tasting Notes: This luxurious Washington red is sure to please with its balance of full, rich dark fruit and structure. We watched it evolve over a few days, and it just kept getting better over day one and two. So yes, we agree with the following tasting note from The Wine Panel that the wine will benefit from about an hour in the decanter.
‘This Bordeaux-Style Blend is big, bold and has a little structure to it….it’s fine but persistent tannins will soften nicely in a year or two. This is a robust wine with attitude, that will settle down nicely with just a little time and maturity. If you can’t wait, we suggest decanting for an hour or two before enjoying.” —The Wine Panel, 90 points
Pairing: This wine will pair wonderfully with a range of cozy comfort foods, including homemade burgers (see recipe below), grilled portobello’s, bacon-wrapped dates, roasted chicken, pork braises, and pasta bolognese.
Smash Burgers
By Farideh Sadeghin
About. Samantha and Xander Kent met salsa dancing just months before Xander left to join the Peace Corps in 2010. Despite this, they maintained a long-distance connection. While volunteering, Xander developed a passion for beekeeping and the environment. In parallel, Samantha continued her studies in chemistry and developed a love of flavors and expression. Almost ten years and ten thousand miles later, they discovered a life together that found a balance they never thought possible, founding a winery together in the Snoqualmie Valley. The winery is called Alveare (‘beehive’ in Latin) to represent their connection to both the community and the natural environment.
When Samantha and Xander moved onto the Alveare estate in 2016, they discovered rich history on the property dating back to an 1870s settlement farm which later included a milking barn, a farmhouse, and a number of small historic farm buildings from the early 1900s. As they continued to make wine, they fell in love with the idea of having each wine tell a story about their life, farm, and community through the use of imagery and even the flavors in the wine. In 2023, they took a leap and changed the winery’s name and label from Orenda to Alveare Winery.
As head winemaker, Samantha believes that wine should maintain a balance between bold and subtle flavors. To execute this challenge, she’s partnered with some of the highest elevation vineyards in Washington state. High elevation provides a cool climate with late ripening fruit. This allows the grapes more time to mature, making wine less bold and significantly more subtle than wines from warmer regions.
Samantha and Zander maintain 15 hives on the winery property and are active supporting pollinator education in the Snoqualmie Valley. Just as bees bring balance to the local environment, they want their ‘Bee & Barrel’ blend to represent a balance of varieties and the unique character of that vintage. The 2022 Alveare Bee & Barrel is a Bordeaux-style blend of 60% Merlot, 17% Malbec, 12% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Petite Sirah from vineyards in the Columbia Valley. The wine spent 24 months aging in French oak and only 250 cases were made.
