Bartier Bros. - it's all about the terroir

 

                                                     Photo: Winemaker Michael Bartier

 

Michael Bartier, the winemaker and co-owner at Bartier Bros. winery, has a definite house style that expresses clearly in the winery’s current releases.

 

Every wine is made to showcase the purity of the fruit. Wood flavours never cover the fruit flavours, because the wines are aged just in stainless steel or in neutral oak barrels. These wines are all about expressing the terroir of the Black Sage Bench (or Summerland in the case of the Gewürztraminer).

 

For some background in the winery, here is an excerpt from The Okanagan Wine Tour Guide, which I released earlier this year with co-author Luke Whittall.

 

The wine-industry verity that “it’s all about the dirt” is nowhere more obvious than at Bartier Bros. The winery’s 14½-acre Cerqueira Vineyard produces wines with complex flavours with a spine of minerality. The vineyard is on the Black Sage Bench’s gravel bar where the last glacier, as it was retreating 10,000 years ago, laid down a calcium-rich layer of gravel. The vineyard was planted in the early to mid-2000s with Sémillon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah. It began selling fruit to Township 7 when Michael Bartier was the winemaker there.

 

“I loved the grapes and coveted the property,” Michael says. When the Cerqueira family’s contract with Township 7 ended, they offered it to Michael and his older brother, Don, when Michael began making wine for the brothers’ label in 2009. Subsequently, the brothers bought the vineyard.

 

They were both born in the Okanagan Valley, Donald in 1958 and Michael in 1967, the sons of an accountant, and initially pursued careers outside of the valley. Don, an Alberta oil-industry executive, planted a small Gewürztraminer vineyard at Summerland in 2010. Michael, after getting a degree in recreational administration and working five years with a Victoria wine agency, returned to the Okanagan to start his winemaking career at Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards in 1995. Over the next two decades, he made wine at Township 7, Road 13, and Okanagan Crush Pad, as well as providing consulting work with other wineries. The brothers began selling their wines in 2011 and established their winery and tasting room after buying the coveted Cerqueira Vineyard in 2015.

 

The vineyard’s mineral content makes it singular. “All our rocks are crusted white [with calcium], and the small feeder roots from the vines are ‘hugging’ those rocks,” Michael says. “Every vintage, the wines are fresh, fruity, and minerally . . . That limestone ends up in every glass of our wine.”

Here are notes on the wines.

 

Bartier Bros. Muscat 2019 ($17.99 for 242 cases). With just 10.5% alcohol, this is a light, even delicate, wine with spicy aromas and flavours recalling rose petals. While there is a hint of sweetness, the acidity gives the wine a crisp and clean finish. A delicious wine, so good that you may not want to share the bottle. 91.

 

Bartier Bros. Gewürztraminer 2018 ($18.99 for 273 cases). Fermented cool and aged in stainless steel, this is a wine with a floral aroma and flavours of spice
and peach. There is a hint of residual sugar nicely balanced with moderate acidity. 90.

 

Bartier Bros. Chardonnay 2019 ($22.99 for 233 cases). This is a wine for those who prefer Chardonnay to be lean and fruit forward. The wine was fermented cool and was aged on the lees for six months in stainless steel. It begins with aromas of apples and lemon. On the palate, the texture is surprisingly generous, supporting flavours of apple, peach and pear. The finish is persistent. 91.

 

Bartier Bros. Sémillon 2019 ($19.99 for 471 cases). Fermented cool and aged six months in stainless steel, this dry white has aromas and flavours of apple, apricot and honeydew melon. 90.

 

Bartier Bros. Cabernet Franc 2018 ($25.99 for 701 cases). This wine had 19 days of skin contact and was aged 14 months in neutral French oak barrels. It shows the brambly characters of the variety – aromas and flavours of blackberry, black cherry and blueberry. 91.

 

Bartier Bros. Illegal Curve 2018

($25.99 for 237 cases). This is 93.5% Merlot and 6.5% Cabernet Franc. The wine is a bright expression of fruit. The Merlot portion was aged nine months in stainless steel. The Cabernet Franc was barrel-aged but the oak is imperceptible in the flavours of cherry and raspberry. 90.

 

Bartier Bros. Merlot 2018 ($22.99 for 941 cases). This wine had 19 days of skin contact during fermentation and was then aged 13 months in neutral French oak barrels. The result is a Merlot where the fruit aromas and flavours – cherry and blueberry – are bright and intense. There is a note of minerality to give the wine a good backbone. 91.

 

Bartier Bros. Syrah 2018 ($29.99 for 634 cases). This wine was fermented in  one-ton open-top fermenters and in a five-ton oak tank with 10% whole clusters. There was 18 days of skin contact and 17 months aging in neutral French oak barrels. The signature notes of black pepper are on the nose and the palate, mingled with flavours of blackberry, black cherry and fig. 92.

 

Bartier Bros. Orchard Row 2018 ($36.99 for 134 cases). This unusual blend was conceived as the house wine at Bartier Bros. until they were convinced to release it. The blend  is 33% Gamay Noir, 33% Pinot Noir, 17% Cabernet Franc and 16% Merlot. After long skin contact (19 to 23 days), the wine was aged 15 months in neutral French oak barrels. It has aromas and flavours of plum, strawberry, raspberry and blackberry with a hint of spice and leather on the finish. 91.

 

Bartier Bros. The Goal 2018 ($36.99 for 24 cases). The winery’s flagship red, this is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc. The grapes went into one-ton open-top fermenters, macerating for 26 days. On pressing, the wine aged 17 months in neutral French oak. There are aromas of cassis, black cherry and mocha which are echoed on the bold palate, supported by long, ripe tannins. The finish just goes on and on. 93.