Dancing Bee Winery

http://www.dancingbeewinery.com

Dancing Bee Winery is located in Rogers and is part of the Walker Honey Farm Store. It is owned by Janice and Clint Walker and their son Clint is also a vintner at the winery. Dancing Bee Winery opened in September 2011.

Dancing Bee Winery specializes in honey wine or better known as mead. The name “Dancing Bee” came from one of the ways honey bees communicate with one another which is with a dance language.

I easily found the Dancing Bee Winery which is located in a large building. Chelsea was my tasting guide and she also handles the social media for the Dancing Bee Winery. I found them on Twitter and was one of the main reasons I had to visit the winery when I was in the area. Tastings are held every day which makes it convenient.

There is a tasting fee for five wines which also includes a logoed wine glass. The bottles use corks and the tastings are poured from the bottle. You stand at the tasting bar to do a tasting and fairly close to the tasting bar in the wall is a glass enclosed honeycomb complete with bees. It was interesting examining the enclosure and especially making sure there was no way for the bees to get out!

I learned more about honey wine and mead while at the Dancing Bee Winery. Honey wine dates back to at least 7000 B.C. and is a mixture of honey, water, yeast, and other added ingredients. Honey comes in many different varietals depending on the flowers the bees visit and each has their own unique flavors, sweetness, and color. For example a buckwheat honey is much darker than a clover honey which is what most people consider a normal honey.

There are different types of mead which Dancing Bee Winery offers. Mead is fermented honey and is also called honey wine. Melomel is a wine made from honey and fruit fermented together. Cyser is honey and apples fermented together.

Dancing Bee Winery also makes one wine with Texas grapes from Red Caboose Winery. This wine is called the Texas Two Step and is a melomel made of 60% wildflower honey, tallow tree honey, and 40% Merlot grapes.

Other meads produced are Citrus Tango made from orange blossom honey and fresh squeezed oranges which came out in June. The supply of Cyser-Apple wine bottles is low so unfortunately you are unable to taste that wine which is made with tart apples and wildflower honey. They will be coming out with a winter mead made with honey and cranberry.

For those people who do not care for mead and to supplement their wine menu, Dancing Bee Winery also offer a small selection of red and white wines from other Texas wineries Red Caboose Winery and Georgetown Winery.

A wine club will be coming soon. A gift shop is present primarily with honey products.

Private events can be held at the winery. They have had events before such as Wino Women’s Club, Book Clubs, and Girls Night Out. Other events are planned for the Fall season.

Dancing Bee is on the San Gabriel Wine Trail.