At Bee Girl, (a 1% for the Planet nonprofit partner since 2012) the mission is to educate and inspire communities to conserve bees, their flowers, and the spaces that they occupy. In 2019, James Frey had just certified his winery Trisaetum as a 1% for the Planet business member, and was looking to build a partnership with a local bee-focused nonprofit. After a conversation with Sarah Red-Laird, founder and Executive Director of Bee Girl, the two knew that this was a perfect partnership.
Photo by Bee Girl
The Partnership:
Since there isn’t much research on the relationship between bees and wine grapes, Sarah and James set out with the goal to create the best habitat for bees while maximizing the growth and health of the wine grapes. To accomplish this, Sarah will be traveling to Trisaetum multiple times a year to monitor bees in the vineyard, and make recommendations on bee habitat creation.
James will track the intricacies of the wine itself to track patterns and progress. The theory is that if you incorporate more bees, and other flitting, flying insects, into the system, they will help to “dust up” the natural yeasts, bacteria, and fungi in the vineyard which create great wine. The partnership also seeks to inspire other wineries in the area to take action for the bees in their own growing practices.
