Exploring Alaska's Unique Fruit Wines: A Journey with Bear Creek Winery
The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast - A podcast by Forrest Kelly, Bleav

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Join us as we explore the fascinating world of fruit wines at Bear Creek Winery in Homer, Alaska, where the flavor profiles are refreshingly distinct from traditional grape wines. Host Forest Kelly engages with winery owner Lewis, who shares insights into the challenges and triumphs of crafting wines from local berries and fruits in a region known for its halibut fishing. Discover the innovative spirit behind their popular strawberry rhubarb wine and the exciting plans for new products, including sparkling apple wine. Lewis highlights the collaborative nature of the winemaking community in Alaska, emphasizing the unique tastes that fruit wines bring to the table. This episode promises to expand your palate and inspire your next culinary pairing adventure.Bear Creek WineryWelcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast. I’m your host Forrest Kelly from the seed to the glass. Wine has a past. Our aim at The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast is to look for adventure at wineries around the globe. After all grape minds think alike. Let’s start the adventure. Our featured winery is Bear Creek Winery as we venture to Homer, Alaska. Population just over 5,000, the halibut fishing capital of the world. Home to such famous people as the singer Jewel. Mr. Motel 6 Tom Bodett. Tom Bodett: We’ll sure leave the light on for you. Forrest Kelly: Thanks Tom and Bear Creek Winery, owner-operator Louis Mauer. That is correct. So when we pull into the parking lot at Bear Creek Winery, what do we see? Beautiful set of grounds and gardens that you can see and so there’s a little aft people can walk through and we’ve highlighted some of the berries, the fruits, and berries that we use in our wines in the garden. No, the first thing people think of, you know, a winery in Alaska. How is that possible? Are there any hardships?Well, yes. If we were trying to grow our grape, it would be extremely difficult. Which we’ve actually tried cultivating grapes and they’ll root and they do okay during the summer months, but then they’re very difficult over winter with the cold. Our most challenging thing is probably shipping items, getting stuff up here, and getting things back down the lower 48. It is always a challenge and costly.In the early years, you were doing five-gallon batches and now you’re over what, 20,000 gallons a year? That’s correct. Right now, we ship anywhere in the US.So your featured wine, your home run, your grand slam home run wine would be?Our strawberry rhubarb. We have two brands, one’s a Bear Creek and the strawberry rhubarb is by far our most popular wine. We make a strawberry wine and then a rhubarb wine and blend the two together. And then for our Glacier Bear, which is our sister label that we’ve produced in order to highlight the guaranteed to be grown in Alaska fruit wines. We have a golden raspberry that we make that’s extremely popular.Do you get any push back from traditional wineries?No, not from wineries but within wine tasters. Everything’s interested in what we’re doing, it’s very collaborative. We get more blowback from customers coming into the tasting room and not understanding what it is that we do more so than people in the industry.It’s the taste of a fruit wine that much...