Sébastien Hotte becomes winemaker at Harper's Trail

Photo: Sébastien Hotte For the first time since it opened in 2012, Harper’s Trail Estate Winery near Kamloops will have a fulltime winemaker on site. The winery has just announced that Sébastien Hotte has been appointed winemaker and vineyard manager. Harper’s Trail has been relying on consulting winemakers, primarily Michael Bartier, the talented co-owner of Bartier Brothers near Oliver. A consulting winemaker still will be involved with Harper’s Trail – Pascal Madevon, a veteran Okanagan winemaker, has been retained to work with Sébastien. The winery, which made its initial vintages at Okanagan Crush Pad Winery, has been well-served by its consultants. As an example, at the All Canadian Wine Championships this summer, Harper’s Trail won two gold medals and one silver for wines it submitted, Owned by Kamloops business couple Vicki and Ed Collett, Harper’s Trail has a 100-acre property on the north shore of the Thompson River. The vineyard grows Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. Born in Québec, Sébastien began his career as a sommelier after graduating from the École Hôtelière des Laurentides. “Like a lot of French Canadians, I moved out to British Columbia for the mountains and ended up enjoying wine,” he told me several years ago. His sommelier training “offered me opportunities to travel overseas. I lived in Japan, worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Here, I have lived in the Kootenays, in Whistler and in Tofino [where he worked at the Wickaninnish Inn].” He began a gradual switch to winemaking while still working as a sommelier. Sébastien began taking Washington State University courses and learning on the job with several Okanagan wineries, including two vintages with winemaker Anthony Buchanan at Eau Vivre Winery at Cawston in 2014 and 2015 and a six-month internship at CheckMate Artisanal Winery in 2016. Then he moved on to become Anthony’s assistant winemaker at Desert Hills Estate Winery for at least two vintages. Then he joined Ricco Bambino, the urban winery in Kelowna, as winemaker, finishing the 2018 wines and making the 2019 vintage. “I found them,” Sébastien told me last year. “I was sitting at Mile Zero, the wine bar in Penticton. I was talking to the people working there and said I was considering moving. I liked Desert Hills but I was looking to just go up the ladder. If you are assistant winemaker and the winemaker is going to be staying there for a while …” He was told that Ricco Bambino was looking for a winemaker. He applied and got the job. However, that job began to evaporate when Ricco Bambino sold its vineyard south of Okanagan Falls and put the Kelowna winery on the market. In May this year, Sébastien told me: “I have been hired as the Technical Director for a project in Romania called Alira winery, which coincidentally is located on the Danube in the Dobrogea region. The hiring was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak but due to the situation I cannot 100% confirm it will still happen. Winemaking is considered an essential service and travel is allowed for work, so I might get lucky and be able to fulfill my commitment for them.” As it turned out, the pandemic ruined that opportunity for him – but Harper’s Trail has opened a new opportunity for Sébastien that includes working with one of the Okanagan’s most seasoned winemaking consultant. Born and trained in France, Pascal Madevon came to Canada in 1981 as the inaugural winemaker for Osoyoos Larose. After 10 vintages there, he moved to Culmina Family Estate Winery for several years before launching his career as a consulting winemaker. His clients have included One Faith Winery, French Door Estate Winery, Four Shadows Vineyard & Winery, Liber Farm & Winery and now Harper’s Trail. “Sébastien brings with him a low interventionist idealism and emphasis on crafting terroir driven wines,” Harper’s Trail said in a news release. “He will assist the winery in its journey to organic grape growing and farming with attention on soil health utilizing local biodiversity as well as continuing the Harper’s Trail way, of an environment that is herbicide and pesticide free.”