Harvesting the Grapes

As we continued through the vineyard, Marcus explained how Great Bear achieves different flavor profiles through grape variety, vineyard location, and, most importantly, harvest timing.

Great Bear produces approximately 2,000 cases of wine each year. While many of its wines are California-style and fruit-forward, the winery also produces European-style wines with lighter flavor profiles. Rather than relying heavily on additives, the team focuses on harvesting grapes at the right time and carefully managing the winemaking process to naturally develop the flavors and mouthfeel they want.

Wine grapes are different from table grapes: they’re smaller, have thicker skins, and contain seeds. Those thicker skins are especially important because much of a wine’s color and flavor comes from them. Sugar content is another important factor because the sugar in grapes ultimately converts to alcohol during fermentation. For example, Great Bear’s Cabernet Sauvignon is picked at approximately 25% sugar content, which translates to around 14% alcohol in the finished wine. The team also looks at the color of the seeds and tastes the grape skins to determine when the fruit has reached the desired level of ripeness.

Harvest timing can dramatically change the flavor of a wine. Cabernet Sauvignon picked around the middle of the harvest can have flavors of strawberries, raspberries, and red cherries alongside darker notes of blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry, and chocolate. If the grapes are picked later, the wine can become much more dominated by dark fruit and jammy flavors.

That’s why Great Bear doesn’t simply harvest all of its grapes at once. The team can taste the grapes as they develop and decide when to pick them based on the flavor profile they want to create.

White grapes are generally harvested earlier, when they have higher acidity, lower sugar, and lighter flavors. Great Bear’s Chardonnay is an exception. They allow it to ripen later because it develops richer Meyer lemon, orange, and peach flavors.

The vineyard is also intentionally designed to keep the grapes shaded. Direct sunlight can cause grapes to raisin and concentrate their sugars, changing their flavor. Rather than letting those grapes go to waste, Great Bear uses some of its raisined grapes to make a port-style wine with concentrated preserved blackberry jam flavors. They also produce a white port-style wine using Chardonnay grapes harvested later in the season when their sugars have become more concentrated.