Blue Ridge

"We are proud to share that Bear Claw Vineyards is also the first Farm Winery and Vineyard established in Fannin County with a true "Blue Ridge, GA" address." To fully understand what makes Bear Claw Vineyards unique and the wine something you have never tasted before you need to understand how wine is created and what the grapes and land can do to make the perfect wine possible. Wikipedia.org states "A vineyard is often characterized by its terroir, a French term loosely translating as "a sense of place" that refers to the specific geographical and geological characteristics of grapevine plantations, which may be imparted in the wine." Bear Claw Vineyards is in a prime location, the elevation of the vineyard is at 1832 feet above sea level and this is an elevation that is known worldwide as optimal for producing great wines. Lots of sunshine during the day, cooler temperatures at night, and the plentiful cool mountain air and breezes combine with the very rich and unique soils to produce a wine grape with true quality and superb characteristics. It is always about quality, never quantity, this is part of our mission to produce only top quality wines. True quality wine is birthed from the land, thus the care we give the land is very important. Bear Claw Vineyards is a densely planted vineyard which is rarer to see, we have vines planted 3ft and 4ft apart, the majority of the other vineyards you will see have planted 6ft to 8ft between vines. This dense planting will actually produce fewer grapes. Why would we do this, why would we want each vine to actually produce less grapes? It is once again about quality, the grapes we do produce will be of a higher quality and when harvested have a larger natural sugar content, this will yield the results we want in the finished product and make it exceptional compared to just a standard wine." "We have a goal to instill exceptional quality every step of the way, from the vineyard to the barrel, and then finally to the bottle. We will use farming practices to sustain the rich and bio-diverse ecosystem of our vineyard soils as we understand one of the most important parts of the wine-making process happens in the vineyard. As a result, our team maintains a deep respect for the land and the vines." Bear Claw Vineyards, Inc's. original acreage was planted by the Swim family in the spring of 2015; they are currently still the majority stock holders of the business.