If you can see Mt. Baker, you are part of The Experience
Zooming up Mt. Baker Highway for an early bird ski lift, blink and you might miss Barmann Cellars Tasting Room on the corner of Silver Lake Road and Highway 542 in Maple Falls.
The 16-acre farmstead was purchased in 2021 by husband-and-wife duo Stephanie Barmann and Jesse Nickerson, who took a small grove of perennials planted in 1989 by a Western Washington University professor into a full-blown winery, which now boasts a wide selection of natural wines and ciders and a tasting room for event hosting.
A fourth-generation farmer hailing from northern California, Barmann handles the day-to-day sales, marketing, design, and inventory management of the cellar, while Nickerson takes on the seasonal farming, harvesting and production work.
The whole idea behind Barmann Cellars, they said, is to create wines, ciders and experiences that can’t be done at the larger corporate wineries that dominate the consumer wine market.
The goal is to ferment “low-intervention” wine free of pesticides throughout the growing process, and chemicals in the fermentation process, Barmann said. That makes for a more expensive product that, admittedly, can’t compete with a cheap bottle of wine from Eastern Washington, Europe or Australia, but offers a unique experience that can only be had in the Mt. Baker Foothills.
“Our style of fermenting that we use doesn’t leave room for a lot of mistakes,” Barmann said. “We’re not filtering, we’re not adding chemicals to erase mistakes made. They’re very honest, true representations of this area from which beautiful wines can be made.”
Staying true to the natural flavors that are born on the banks of the Nooksack Valley means Barmann Cellars is constantly up against the elements, Nickerson said. Anyone living in the Pacific Northwest knows those pesky elements make the region stunningly beautiful, but fickle to the wants of a winemaker.
“Farming is a difficult task where you give up a lot of control, especially when you do things the way we do things, which is low-intervention, regenerative-type approaches,” Nickerson said. “We’re not spraying boatloads of chemicals, so we’re kind of at the whim of the weather and we can only do so much to fight it. It’s a challenge.”
While the farming aspect is an ever-evolving puzzle to solve, running a hyper-local small business also comes with its own challenges, Barmann said. Nearly everything is done by hand, especially the picking, which is almost unheard of in the commercial wine business. That makes for a more labor-intensive process, but also a more personal experience for the wine lovers that choose a bottle of Barmann.
“People are coming off the mountain with that same kind of adventurous spirit that we’re crafting from,” Barmann said. “It’s an effort to give people a place to come together and consume the flavors of the Nooksack Valley. This is where we are.”
Barmann Cellars most recent addition is the tasting room, which offers event hosting, private tastings, and monthly craft nights at 7802 Silver Lake Road, right next to Crossroads Grocery. Barmann Cellars also started a bottle club, which offers three handcrafted wines and ciders every three months for $120/quarter, if shipped, and $100 if picked up at 5560 Hillard Road.
“The most important part of the whole effort is bringing an agricultural product to market that was produced, grown, hand-bottled and done here in the community,” Barmann said. “It’s more important than ever to have agency and to take control over what you put in your own body.” X
