We are BUZZING today. Reverberating with excitement! The impossible-to-find, always spectacular, often profound Beekeeper is back!

96 points! Best price anywhere!

Speaking of anywhere…you won’t find it at your local shop. Or on any websites. Wine Spies is your EXCLUSIVE source for these 2018s, the very last vintage they made before a hiatus.

We started offering these wines in 2020 and everyone sells out. The hype is REAL. One taste may send all other Zinfandels into a ho-hum, slumgum, plonky abyss. Their recent wines are as good as ever, cementing them on the Mount Rushmore of Zinfandel. Actually, they might occupy more than one spot…

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate rated hundreds of 2018 Zinfandels. Among the Top 10 scored, there’s only one winery that took 3 spots, with all they make. You guessed it.

“I was stunned by the quality of these 2018s, Beekeeper is a must-taste for any Zinfandel lover. says Wine Advocate “I never reviewed Beekeeper when I was at Wine Enthusiast because they didn’t send me samples! I must say how wonderfully each of them shows off the terroir of the vineyard. Big, voluptuous, heady Zins, and they are picture-perfect exemplars of that style.” adds Steve Heimoff

They’re one-of-a-kind. Always boasting mega huge scores across vintages. And held in a pantheon of the highest quality alongside the likes of Turley, Bedrock, Carlisle, Martinelli… and whomever else sits up there.

Just last year Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate recapped the story: “this relatively new project from co-winemakers Ian Blackburn and Clay Mauritson began in 2008 when Mauritson, a seventh-generation grower, offered Blackburn some of his family’s fruit from the Rockpile appellation in the Dry Creek Valley. Zinfandel became the flagship varietal, and the wines are crafted at Mauritson’s facilities.”

Writing a Beekeeper tasting note can be quite challenging. There’s SO MUCH in every sniff and sip to talk about. Layers upon layers unfold, like peeling a hypothetical fruit that never ends. It’s trippy stuff, really. Like a theatrical masterpiece, an opera, a symphony, it’s an experience that must be lived to be believed. We’ll let the couple of raving reviews below do the rest as we are at an utter loss of words in the presence of such perplexing beauty and complexity.

At under $50 no other varietal, place, or winery can readily deliver what we’ve got here. Put one up blind against the finest reds your budget allows, and let your imagination go wild when things unfold. No doubt it will put wines 10x, heck 100x its price to shame.

It’s hard to pick favorites with Beekeeper, but the Montecillo could be ours. Time will tell…the swarm is descending on what little we have. Will you be one of the lucky ones?

96 Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“Beekeeper Cellars is a relatively new project from co-winemakers Ian Blackburn and Clay Mauritson. The brand began in 2008 when Mauritson, a seventh-generation grower, offered Blackburn some of his family’s fruit from the Rockpile appellation in the Dry Creek Valley. Zinfandel became the flagship varietal, and the wines are crafted at Mauritson’s facilities. I was stunned by the quality of these Zinfandels, from the elegant, mineral-driven Hillside Reserve to the powerful Secret Stones cuvée. Beekeeper is a must-taste for any Zinfandel lover. The 2018 Zinfandel Montecillo Vineyard comes from a vineyard co-planted with a small percentage of Petite Sirah and offers the kaleidoscopic aromatics of the best Zinfandels and a great balance of intensity and elegance. Medium ruby in color, it’s bursting with pure scents of baked rhubarb, apricot and peach, wafts of tar and exotic floral and botanical nuances. Medium to full-bodied, its intense fruits are foiled by juicy acidity and abundant, grainy tannins, and it has a long, layered finish. 190 cases were made. Drink 2023-2037.”

95 Points – Connoisseur’s Guide

“Taking its accustomed place at the head of the class, Beekeeper comes through once more with a top-tier Zinfandel that impresses equally for its concentration, its precision and sheer fruity depth. Time and again, Beekeeper has proven that richness, ripeness and balance are not mutually exclusive, and, as outgoing and involving as this so very generous wine may be at the moment, it is structured to age famously and is, in our minds, one that absolutely demands time if it is to achieve its full potential. As for cellaring strategy, three years seems the minimum while ten is not too much, and one or two bottles is not nearly enough.”