The Bartier Bros.

We’re from this Valley. We grew up here, we know it, we love it, we are a product of it and we feel responsible to it. Our wines are an expression of the valley, being true to the language that can describe any aspect of the Okanagan; bright, fresh, refreshing, pristine, unspoilt, alive and so on . . .

Our ambition is to make great wines. Great wine can be found all over the world but it’s important for us not to merely copy those wines because by definition, great wine is unique and identifiable to its origin. Of course, great wine also by definition should be delicious. In the Okanagan Valley, we have a rare and precious combination of growing conditions; relatively high altitude, desert climate (hot days, cool nights), low humidity, tolerable winters from our moderating lakes, young soils lain over glacial till and all of this occurs at a very high latitude from the equator. The Okanagan epitomizes all of the great qualities, which the entire global wine industry scrambles to define itself as being.

The Partnership

Don and Michael are brothers raised in the Okanagan Valley. As young men they took different career paths – Don an accountant, Michael a winemaker – but have remained close.

Michael has pined for his own winery to make his style of wine, but lacked the business and financial acumen for this undertaking. Don has long been a wine enthusiast and indeed about the best customer of each winery that Michael worked for.

Loyalty and partisan feelings aside, Don liked Michael’s style of winemaking. With his fascination in wine and advice from Michael, Don planted a small vineyard at his wife Sheila’s family property in Summerland. Michael watched this project closely and helped a lot.

Either Don passed Michael’s test, or Michael laid a trap that Don walked into.

In either event, the stage was set for the partnership of the Bartier Bros., two brothers, who between them had a vineyard, business expertise, viticulture experience, an accountant, a winemaker, and most importantly, an abiding respect for their Valley and the desire to represent it well.