Our Story
Our passion at Great Bear Vineyards is to grow the highest quality grapes and to make superb wines. We are a family-run vineyard and winery.
Great Bear Vineyards is the culmination of the Meadows-Smith family’s dream to create world-class wines to share with friends, family and our community.
We proudly tend our vines by hand using sustainable farming practices, working in harmony with nature. Our winemakers, Jenny and Marcus, craft small lots of award-winning wines from our premium grapes.
Award-Winning Wines. Family Run. Sustainably Grown.
After years of searching for a vineyard to buy, we were rewarded in finding the perfect location - a slice of heaven in Yolo County. The terroir is perfect for growing premium grapes with Rincon silty loam and clay loam soils and the delta breeze which provides the diurnal temperature change needed to produce fruit with intense flavor.
Great Bear Vineyards is located on the northern edge of Davis, just as the houses transition to farmland. It was originally the Meyer Ranch with a homestead, water towers, barn and gardens that date back to 1860. We have established new winery buildings, while retaining all the historic buildings and connection to nature. In addition to the vines, we also grow olives, fruit trees and lavender. We produce olive oil and lavender products, while donating our mixed fruit to local charities.
Great Bear Vineyards wines have won Silver, Gold & Double Gold medals at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the USA’s largest and most prestigious competition. In 2022, our Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone 6, was awarded Double Gold in the “$90 and over” category. Our Chardonnay and Roussanne varietal wines were also awarded 91 points by Wine Enthusiast Magazine, and more recently our 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon, Grand Reserve, was awarded 93 points. In addition, Great Bear Vineyards was voted “Best Local Winery” by Sacramento Magazine readers in 2020 and 2021 —read our featured story here!
We are keen naturalists and have strong a desire to improve the environment. We encourage owls and other birds of prey to nest in the barns, water towers and trees. We take joy in the wildflowers that grow throughout the farm and vineyard. We love to watch the jack rabbits, squirrels and gophers that make their home with us, and we enjoy the regular nighttime visits from coyotes. We practice no-till in the vineyard to help develop a better microbiome with beneficial microbes that contribute to the health of our vines. We grow a cover crop in the vine rows to draw water away from vines to reduce vigor and create a habitat for wildlife.
Terroir is the characteristic taste and flavor imparted to a wine by the environment in which it is produced. The terroir includes the soil, topography and climate, but also the people. Great Bear Vineyards is located on the northern edge of the university town of Davis, the globally recognized center of expertise for viticulture and winemaking. Many of the local experts from University of California, Davis, and the surrounding wineries of Napa, Sonoma and Winters have helped Jenny and Marcus Meadows-Smith with advice and support to establish their vineyard, grow excellent grapes and make fine wines in Yolo County at Great Bear Vineyards.
The Team
Jenny is the winemaker. A chemist and a graduate of the UC Davis winemaking certificate program, Jenny has worked with several local winemakers over the years to build her vast knowledge of the science and art of winemaking. Having travelled to wineries around the world—from Europe, Australia and South Africa to those closer to home in California, she has developed her individual flair and style that is evident in all of the Great Bear wines.
Marcus is the assistant winemaker who also works in the vineyard. Raised in the industry, on the day Marcus was born, his dad picked the grapes that were in the wine enjoyed at Marcus’ 21st birthday party. Marcus has worked in agriculture his whole career, traveling to all of the great international wine regions. Marcus is an advocate of sustainable farming and the environment. He moved to California to become the CEO of AgraQuest, a biopesticide company supplying beneficial microbial products to organic and premium wineries. He was instrumental in leading the wider adoption of biopesticides globally, reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides and chemical load on the environment. He implements this deep knowledge of sustainability at Great Bear in both the vineyard and the winery.
Mike Anderson was the viticulture consultant who helped design and set up the vineyard for premium grape production. Mike was head of UC Davis Research Station at Oakville in Napa, where he managed grape production and research projects in viticulture, for many years prior to his retirement. Mike designed the vineyard spacing, layout and trellising system at Great Bear Vineyards to maximize the quality of the fruit. He guided the management of the vineyard with minimal input and deficit irrigation and provided instruction for hand pruning, leaf pulling, cluster thinning, and harvesting.
Great Bear Vineyards is a family affair with the 4 children — Holly, Cara, Ruth and Michael — and Grandma Joy, assisting in many aspects of the vineyard and winery from picking and inspecting grapes to photography and website design.
