Bartlett Winery, Gouldsboro Maine

Life is a journey. Every human infant begins with the simplest of drinks - milk. Slowly, over time, our tastes evolve as we experience life. We grow up with burgers, Hi-C and soda. We listen to simple pop music. When we hit adulthood, we often slide into sweet, simple White Zinfandel. When we travel, we expand our minds a little, but not much. We'll try the local steak, try the local cabernet. We check out the local guitarist. We'll want to be local - but not TOO local.

At some point in life, we encounter a sea change moment. Suddenly, we realize just how unique every area of the world is. We visit Kenya, we relish an evening of Ngoya drums and chanting. When we visit Scotland, we ignore the steak and savor the haggis. In the same manner, we suddenly realize that wine was never defined as a "grape product". Wine is, simply put, a yeast interacting with a sugar-laden food object, turning that sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Grapes can make wine - but they are only the beginning. There is so much more out there in the world.

Wine has been enjoyed by mankind for over 8,000 years, and wine was never considered a grape-only product. The Persians loved their honey wine, or mead. Sumerians enjoyed wine made from dates. One Roman beverage would begin with grape wine, then add in honey for a flavor boost. Pliny the Elder, writing in the years just after Christ, was a great fan of pear wine. This wine style became a great favorite in Paris in the 1400s.

It makes little sense, then, to go to an area world famous for certain farm products, and expect them to instead grow grapes! That would be like ignoring the Maine lobsters and demanding Maine set up beef cattle farms, to create "local burgers". Maine is known around the world for its incredibly flavorful blueberries and honey - and is also known for its apple and pear orchards. When I head up north, thoughts of those natural splendors are what make my mouth water. To me, the ultimate expression of a Maine wine product would be created with these amazingly delicious raw materials.

Getting to the Bartlett Winery is a journey of the soul as much as of the body. Starting from the south, you first have to go through the high-tourist areas such as Kittery, full of noise, cars and outlets. As you move further east along the coastline, there are fewer and fewer tourist locations, fewer and fewer signs of "civilization". The landscape becomes more forested, and you begin to sight deer and moose. You are moving "down east" - a term coined by sailors because the winds would push them downwind in this direction.

After a time you have reached Bar Harbor / Mount Acadia Island, which for many in New England is the "easternmost destination". But truly, this is only the beginning. As you move past this final tourist outpost, you head into what Maine is really all about. You begin to experience the verdant evergreen forests, the abundance of wildlife, and the incredibly fertile soil in which Maine's crops grow so flavorfully. The roads become quieter and less traveled. As you drive, you sense that you are approaching somewhere truly special - an oasis in this untouched, traditional area of Maine. When you reach an elegant granite abstract sculpture, you know you have achieved your destination.

Even the parking area at the Bartlett Winery shows an artist's hand. There is a gorgeous garden to one side, complete with floating hummingbirds darting amongst the blossoms. A quiet path wends its way through the forest up to a naturalistic tasting room with fieldstone accents. An area to the right is being developed for a sculpture garden.

Bartlett Winery's owners Bob and Kathe Bartlett came to this quiet area back in 1975. Both were artists and crafts persons. Wine was a hobby at first - a way to find new expression for the plethora of natural freshness that Maine provided. Kathe explains that "our focus was to use Maine agricultural products" to reach a new level of expression. Entranced by the possibilities, Bob went to Augusts to lobby for winery rights. In 1983 he achieved victory, and Bartlett began in earnest. They started with 600 gallons of wine - this was sold out in only 4 days. Now they are up to 6,000 cases a year, but have no desire to grow larger. They primarily sell in Maine, and want to keep up the high standards that their loyal local customers have come to expect. It is this dedication to quality that has won Bartlett the highest awards the industry has to offer.

Walking into the tasting room is like entering a craftsman's display area. The bar area is lovely, and you are surrounded by the fruits of their labor. Kathe Bartlett herself was available to talk about the wines, explain the philosophy and share in the dreams for the future.

We began with the dry mead, made naturally from Maine wild blossom honey. The Bartletts take great care in choosing every raw ingredient for their wines, and in this case the honey tenders they use have bees that feed on blueberries and raspberries in nearby fields. Mead has been loved since the days of the Romans and in fact is the root of the term "honeymoon". According to Celtic tradition, a newly married couple would drink mead for a month to bring on the blessings of a new child. Mead was what Viking warriors expected to find in Valhalla. We found Bartlett's mead to be equal to this great tradition - smooth, rich and flavorful. This wine would go wonderfully with a salmon, chicken or turkey dish, or as a sipping wine on its own.

Next came the apple-pear combination wine, named "Coastal White". Apple-based alcoholic beverages have been enjoyed since the days of the Hebrews and Greeks - but it was the Celts who really brought apple wine to the populace. Soon monasteries were all creating their own version of apple wine, to bring in tourists and income. This was far more popular than beer for the medieval person. This wine has a delicious, fresh aroma, with crisp flavors of pear and apple, and a nice finish. It would go wonderfully with fried seafood, fish & chips, and cheese & crackers.

We move on to the pears, for which Bartlett is rightly famous. Pear wine has been extolled by Greeks, the French, and just about every other civilized culture on the planet. The French oak pear is aged, naturally, in French oak barrels for 18 months. This is light and dry, with a soft, creamy flavor and a hint of smoke, spice and coffee on the finish. This would be fabulous with smoked fish, lobster, turkey, duck or goose.

On to one of my favorite types of wines - blueberry wine. This is a fascinating topic to explore. Technically, a "berry" is a type of fruit where the ovary of the plant turns into the outer skin of the fruit. So a grape is actually a berry. A date is a berry, as is an eggplant. On the other hand, a blueberry is NOT a berry. Neither is a cranberry. So botanically, grape wine is berry wine - while blueberry wine is NOT berry wine. The blueberries we find in Maine are truly one of the only fruits found on US soil that is native to this land. It is perhaps the ultimate expression of what a US wine should be. The Bartletts don't even settle for cultivated blueberry patches - they go for the most delicious they can find, which happen to grow wild. This wine has a light gentle flavor of smooth berry, with a softly dusty finish. It is quite nice with beef dishes.

If you want to step up to the highest quality, give the Winemaker's Reserve dry blueberry a try. This wine won 92 points at the Beverage Tasting Institute. It offers a great, rich flavor with a juicy, mouth filling richness. The medium body has a nice balance and great finish. I'd pair this with steak dinners any night of the week.

For a meal that's more on the gentle side, the Coastal Red is stainless steel fermented and aged, and is a combination of apple and blueberry. The combination brings a lovely, fresh flavor, with a balance of fresh juiciness and nice tartness. For dessert, the raspberry wine was light, fresh, with a rich raspberry flavor and a lovely finish. This would be fantastic with chocolate, stilton cheese or even as a marinade with salmon. As Kathe said, you get "everything but the seeds" in this one.

The Bartletts' rapport with their growers is legendary. They have been working with the local growers for over 20 years now, and know exactly what level of quality they want. Every day during harvest season is carefully evaluated. The Bartletts want the fruit to be as rich and flavorful as possible without sacrificing any quality due to cold snaps or poor weather. As Kathe explains, "If you let them wait a little longer, they get riper and sweeter". The fruit is then immediately rushed to the winery for instant processing. "We don't use any concentrates or flavoring at all," Kathe promises as she goes over the winemaking process. It is the full, natural flavor of the fruit or berry that shines forth in each bottle. Sometimes this balance is a moment by moment juggling endeavor, as when Katrina swept through and nearly knocked all the ripe fruit off the vines and bushes. "That's part of the history of wine," continued Kathe. A quality winemaker works with the weather and what nature provides, in order to create the best possible product.

In fact, this high standard of quality has caused the Bartletts to discontinue products that their fans loved. The winery used to put out a strawberry wine. However, over the years the growers began to change their strawberry mix, aiming for big, "pretty" strawberries that were not as tasty. This is what the grocery store market was demanding. When the flavor levels dropped, the Bartletts discontinued the wine. They didn't feel right in putting out a less than perfect style.

Kathe and Bob feel very strongly that a connection with the soil and with what winemaking is all about will create the best possible product for consumers. It is about years of experience, about hands-on knowledge of the best possible raw materials. Kathe explained how this is true in all aspects of life. "We can't do math any more because we use calculators - that part of our brain atrophies." Numerous studies have proven that people who use their brain more frequently, for crossword puzzles and board games, retain their mental faculties for longer in life. It is no surprise that winemakers who immerse themselves so fully in the winemaking process, and understand their ingredients so thoroughly, will create the finest wines that truly reflect the atmosphere of their local terroir.

Everything you see at the winery speaks to the owners' love of nature and respect for what Maine has to offer. The labels of the bottles display gorgeous botanical prints of the source contents. You know exactly what you're getting from each bottle. The winery has a solid practice of recycling and reusing. They'll use a barrel for 3-5 years, then use the wood for smoking or re-sell them for planters. With only two owners who are intimately involved with every step of the operation, every aspect of the winery's daily life is examined and pruned. The Bartletts made a sparkling wine for a while, but shut that down because it was simply too time intensive for them to take on. Other wineries might have brought in hired labor and sacrificed the quality. That is simply not an option here at Bartlett.

We left the winery carrying a case of wine, and will gladly make this trip up to acquire more in the coming years. Bartlett is more than just fantastic wines - it is an experience from start to finish. Find a way to set aside a weekend and get to the "down east" area of Maine, and to visit this winery. It truly deserves its rating as one of the best fruit wineries in the world, and given the high level of craftsmanship exhibited by both Kathe and Bob Bartlett, it is an experience not to be missed. We are very privileged to have this level of quality in our own back yard. For those who still feel the grape-berry is the only raw ingredient that makes a fine wine, ignoring thousands of years of historical evidence to the contrary, Bartlett might be where you encounter that sea change of your own.

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