  We demonstrate that, at the onset of conduction, an electrostatically defined
quantum wire in bilayer graphene (BLG) with an interlayer asymmetry gap may act
as a 1D semimetal, due to the multiple minivalley dispersion of its lowest
subband. Formation of a non-monotonic subband coincides with a near-degeneracy
between the bottom edges of the lowest two subbands in the wire spectrum,
suggesting an $8e^2/h$ step at the conduction threshold, and the semimetallic
behaviour of the lowest subband in the wire would be manifest as resonance
transmission peaks on an $8e^2/h$ conductance plateau.
