NatureThe BestieIntermediate
Wine and the Honeybee, a free nature course on Tomo

Wine and the Honeybee

Like Duolingo, but for Wine and the Honeybee. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Invisible Partnership and The Integrated Vineyard. It assumes you already know the basics.

11 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Barnaby the Bee-Vintner, the guide who teaches the Wine and the Honeybee course
Wine and the Honeybee
with Barnaby the Bee-Vintner
11
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Wine and the Honeybee

  • Bees pick up Saccharomyces cerevisiae from various flowering plants
  • The bee-gut provides a warm, sugar-rich reservoir for yeast survival
  • Bees deposit these diverse wild strains directly onto grape skins
  • Environmental exposure alone is often too harsh for sensitive wine yeasts
  • Floral diversity near the vines increases the range of yeast vectors
  • Yeasts are shed back into the environment via bee droppings in spring
  • How bees influence the specific yeast profile of a vineyard
  • The role of the bee-gut in yeast seasonality
  • Bee-transported yeast creates a 'poly-culture' of many different strains
  • Industrial yeasts are usually single-strain for maximum consistency
  • Diverse wild strains produce a wider array of aromatic esters
  • Social insects act as 'skin breakers' to access grape sugars
  • The act of feeding simultaneously deposits the yeast starter
  • Field fermentation creates early aromatic complexity before harvest
  • Bees increase the concentration of ambient yeast in the cellar air
  • The sensory and chemical differences between bee-driven and industrial fermentation
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Wine and the Honeybee the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

The Winged Yeast Carriers

Why is the digestive tract of a bee such a great place for wine yeast to survive?

Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.

Course map

Where Wine and the Honeybee takes you

Discover how bees do more than just pollinate; they are the secret architects of a vineyard's yeast profile and soil health.

  1. 1

    The Invisible Partnership

    • Bees as Yeast Vectors
    • Biodiversity and the Soil
  2. 2

    The Integrated Vineyard

    • Bee-Centric Management
    • Honey and the Bottle

2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

Wine and the Honeybee is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

Keep going

More Nature on Tomo

Start free

Start Wine and the Honeybee today.

Download Tomo, search Wine and the Honeybee, and play your first lesson in under a minute.