They speak for the bees

The title character of “The Lorax,” a 1971 parable by Dr. Seuss, is a tufty, little bearded creature who’s determined to fight big business and save the endangered Truffula trees. He is perpetually jumping atop stumps outside the Thneed factory run by Mr. Once-ler and declaring in a siren-like voice, “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.” Then he begs, pleads, demands and argues in an attempt to get the environmental devastation to stop.

Kyle Peterson, co-owner of Winehaven Winery & Vineyard in Chisago City, Minnesota, is clean-shaven and about seven times taller than than the mythical Lorax, but he and his family are engaged in a similar battle: trying to preserve the area’s bees.

No one knows exactly why, but the world’s bee population began to plummet a couple years ago, threatening crops ranging from almonds to oranges to avocados, and sending a clear signal that our ecosystem is wildly out of whack. Some experts suspect digital cell phone frequencies, which is bad news for bees, because we’re certainly not, as a nation, going to give up our iPhones. No, the only way bees are going to survive is if beekeepers put in a lot of extra time and effort.

And that’s what’s happening at Winehaven. They’ve even put a bee on the label of all their wines, to remind us of the insects who are responsible for, basically, fertilizing everything that lies at the base of our food chain.

Back in the 1960’s, when Peterson Honey Company by Kyle’s father Kevin, it was simply an apiary. They specialized in basswood honey — a mild variety that comes from bees who drink nectar from the blooming linden trees lining the St. Croix. There’s a ten-day window around July 4 when pollination occurs. And it’s such a frenzied period, the Petersons say they know it’s happening because the trees along the river begin to “vibrate” with activity.

It wasn’t until the mid-90’s that the Petersons got into commercial winemaking. They did this for a number of reasons. First, they discovered that the 50 acres they own in the Chisago Lakes Area is on approximately the same latitude as the Bordeaux region of France. Second, they’d dabbled in homemade fruit wines for years and found they were becoming pretty good at the process. But perhaps most important, two of the family’s members developed life-threatening bee allergies.

Lucky for us, though — both wine-wise and in a global survival-of-the-species way — the Petersons stayed close to the spirit of Kevin’s original business plan. They moved their honeybees off-site, renting space on neighboring farms to house them, and turned 15 acres of their land over to the growing of grapevines. But they also launched Minnesota’s only official meadery, becoming one of about a dozen wineries in the nation to specialize in honeywine or mead.

If you’re a fan of Beowulf or Renaissance plays with lots of jewel-encrusted goblets, you have to try this. It’s got history going back to the time of Pliny the Elder. Would I drink it every day? No, it’s a bit sweet — plus, it’s reputed to enhance fertility (which, so far as I’m concerned, ought to be on a warning label somewhere, even if it’s only lore). But this is one of those products I’m just glad to know exists.

Winehaven’s Semi-Sweet Honeywine is thinner than I expected — I’d imagined those Norsemen quaffing wine the quality of molasses — but exceedingly pleasant, with the aroma of wildflowers and a flavor that’s both sweet and buttery with just a tiny (9%) zing of alcohol.

It’s worth mentioning that Winehaven also makes fruit wines (cranberry, raspberry, and rhubarb), as well as traditional grape wines: an interesting Riesling with notes of green apple and peach, a boring but competent Frontenac, and a too-sweet but tasty Marechal Foch. I’m dubious, frankly, about the practice of growing grapes in Minnesota and have yet to try a local wine that comes anywhere near West Coast standards. But if any of the local players is going to leap the barrier between Midwestern grape juice and real wine, I’ll put at least a little money on Winehaven’s being the one to do it.