Wine Tasting Notes
Barreto Cellars
Barreto Cellars was officially launched in 2002 with the label's first vintage, However, husband and wife Michael and Joey Barreto moved to the Central Coast region after leaving their jobs and selling their house in 2001 with the aim of claiming their stake in the wine world. A descendant of Portuguese immigrants, Michael Barreto grew up on a dairy farm in the central valley. Farming never appealed to young Michael: “it was all about getting more production with no product differentiation”, he says. “Now that I have been making wine commercially for a few years, I have noticed things coming full circle and now have a deep admiration of the farming aspects as I can see the results in the wines that I produce.”
It took time to go from wine lover to wine maker. Barreto first made home wine. As his fascination grew, he became very serious about learning the ins and outs of winemaking and went back to school. “I have always known that you cannot manage anything unless you fully understand the mechanics of it, so I took a couple of production courses at Fresno State”. In 2001, he took on a job as a cellar worker at Courtside Cellars in San Miguel. In 2003 he became assistant winemaker at Sylvester Winery and began to make wines under his own label in that facility.
Michael Barreto makes his wines serious contenders for the imported Spanish and Portuguese wines available to the general public. His wines offer more breadth and power than many $20 - $30 Riojas and other Spanish and Portugese wines sold in better markets and specialty stores. In this way, they are a New World take on these wines and offer wine lovers partial to more extracted and expressive wines an opportunity to enjoy these varieties. Making generally small lots, Barreto delivers lively and well-defined reds from the Lodi and Paso Robles AVAs. Big kudos for not raising prices in response to awards!
The future direction for Barreto Cellars is towards building a winery with its own vineyards. Michael is taking it all in measured stride saying: “...no timeline is set yet, the success of marketing over the next couple of years will help to bring this vision into focus.” The challenge for this winery is to make larger quantities while maintaining quality.
2003 Barreto Cellars Vintage Port, Lodi 90 Points
2004 Barreto Cellars Tempranillo, Lodi 92 Points
2004 Barreto Cellars Tempranillo, Paso Robles 88 points
2004 Barreto Cellars Touriga, Lodi 91 Points
2004 Barreto Cellars Vinho Tinto, California 87 Points
2004 Barreto Cellars Verdelho, Lodi 87 Points
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