TRAVESSIA Winery Blog

It's no longer a dream

I've been a software test engineer since I graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 1996. I have worked with brilliant people who made me a better professional and in some cases a better person. I also feel extremely fortunate that I have been employed through this entire time.

But today I'm leaving the corporate job to dedicate all my energy to my dream.

A few years ago I began a transformation in my life, one that would take me back to my earliest memories. This is not something that I had planned. It began as a simple quest to understand something that has always been part of my life - wine. I started making it in a small village in the Northeast region of Portugal when I was 6 years old. But it wasn't until early 2005 that I became very curious about the winemaking process that I had known and practiced for so long as an amateur winemaker. So I dug deep into technical aspects and I experimented. I wanted to understand why wine tastes the way it does, sometimes mundane, sometimes magical... and I felt in love.

From this point on wine was no longer a hobby for me. I became obsessed with it - with all of it. The long and often stressful grape growing season, the exhilarating feel of harvest, the energy and "chaos" of crushing, the smells of fermentation - I wanted to do this for a living! But how? Well, I managed to get myself into what is commonly known as "to be in the right place at the right time" when I connected with a local Massachusetts winery that was looking for some winemaking help. It didn't take long for me to developed the confidence in my skills (perhaps naively) and in 2008 I launched a micro-winery that I call Travessia (Portuguese for passage or journey across life).

Since then, there have been many days that I've asked myself... "What the hell am I doing?" I've come to tears a couple of times and I've felt physical pain from pushing myself to the limit. Being told that my wine sucks and that I don't know what I'm doing? Check. Not knowing if I would have money to pay next month's rent? Check. Pallet of falling glass bottles stuck on the sidewalk outside the winery? Check. Exploding wine press? Check. Yes, I had a business plan and I knew this was no romance, but little could have prepared me for the challenges that I've faced. I have no degree in enology and there are aspects of winemaking that frankly still baffle me. I'm still forming a "feeling" for the kind of wine that I truly enjoy and want to make. Hopefully, it will be wine that people will find interesting and want to pay their good money for.

I couldn't have reached this day on my own. Several people provided advice, others inspired me. I will however single out one person without whom none of this would be possible - my talented and beautiful wife. She's a mom, a family CEO, an artist and my strongest supporter. There's also the customer. It's because of each of you who has come to Travessia Winery and made a purchase over the past 3+ years that I get to finally do what I love - Thank You!

Is this really going to work? I'm more confident today than ever before. From this day forward I will be putting all my energy into my dream. Actually, it's no longer a dream… it's really happening!

Things I could have blogged about

Early this week I was told by a good friend... "You are behind on your blog."  "What blog...?" I responded.

It's been more than six months since the last time I posted anything on my blog. It's certainly not for lack of material to write about.  Writing does not come as easy to me as I would hope, so I labor over each post.  Sometimes it takes me an hour to write a mere 4 or 5 paragraphs.  An hour may not sound like much, but an hour is a long time when you have so little left after all other important tasks are done.

So yeah, over the last 6 months I could have written about many things. I could have told you that...

- In June I renewed my lease and committed to downtown New Bedford for another three years.  In the process, I increased the overall winery space by 60% with the addition of a new area that is dedicated to tastings and sales.

- I invested into two new 500-gallon tanks specifically made for white wine fermentations. These are "closed" tanks with a small opening on top.  They are made to ferment juice with temperature control.  No grapes can go into these tanks (technically it could be done, but it would be "hell" to get them out after).

- 2011 was a disappointment in terms of my ability to purchase a variety of locally grown grapes.  As a result, I'm considering an increase in production of wines made with grapes grown elsewhere. With no vineyard of my own and no ability to secure locally grown grapes, there is no choice but to purchase more grapes from other states.  Rest assured that we'll continue to label our wines clearly so that you know what is grown locally and what is not.

- Edson Pereira, my cousin who was part of the winery pretty much from day one and the face of Travessia to many of our customers, has left to pursue a different professional endeavor.  Luckily I found Stephanie Mikolazyk who is the chef and manager at Quicks Hole Restaurant in Woods Hole, MA.  Stephanie has been running our tasting room since November and doing a superb job at it.  She will be with us until March of 2012.

- We just recently received a license from the New Bedford Licensing Department and the Massachusetts ABCC to sell our wines by the glass at the winery.  The licensing process took almost four months.  This new license also gives us the ability to host events in our tasting room, something that we did not previously have.  We look forward to hosting many events in 2012.  Birthday party at the winery anyone?

I honestly don't know what it will become of this blog in 2012.  You can always reach me via twitter or facebook. You can also join our email list which you can easily do through our website.  Till then.... 

Thank you so much for reading.  I hope that 2012 is a phenomenal year for you.

*Picture courtesy of @mattmedeiros

A late Spring 2011 update

There is a lot going on at Travessia. Where to begin?  Let me focus on the "big stuff"....

First, Travessia just signed a new 3-year lease for its current space in downtown New Bedford.  No big surprised there… but the real "news" is that we are leasing more space.  At the end of August we'll be expanding to the space next door that is currently occupied by an art gallery.  This expansion will allow us to completely dedicate the current space to our winery production while the additional 600sf will be primarily used as our tasting and sales room.  This brings increased financial responsibilities, capital investment and heighten risk.  We feel confident that this is a logical step in our growth.  This is only possible because we have been blessed with great patronage from our regular customers and wine club members... THANK YOU!

Second, we are now "live" at the Sandwich Farmers market.  I mentioned in our most recent newsletter that we were in the process of obtaining a permit from the town of Sandwich, MA, to sell our wine at the town's Spring/Summer Farmers market.  We obtained this permit in early May and as of June 1st, we have began our presence at the market.  This is a huge deal for us, because for the first time ever we are able to sell our wine directly to consumers outside of our winery's physical facility.  This took a long time to come to fruition and the work of many people.  Special thanks to the Massachusetts Farm Winery & Growers Association, MDAR, Lisa Davis (market manager) and the Town of Sandwich.  If you live on Cape Cod or plan on spending some time in the Sandwich area this Summer, please come visit us.  Here are the details:

What: The Sandwich Bazaar Farmers Market
Where: #34 Quaker Meeting House Road, Sandwich, MA
When: Every Wednesday and Saturday from now until October 12th, 2011.  8AM to 1PM

Finally... throughout the month of June we'll be pouring our wines at very special events.  Here's a complete list of our events: http://www.travessiawine.com/events.html  Hope to see you at one of these!

Living with wine in the "old world"

Early in March I visited the old village in the north of Portugal where I used to live as a kid. The reason? The family (read my dad) decided that we should re-plant the old vineyard which had succumb after years of neglect (we moved away several years ago looking for a "better life"). This is the birth of a new wine project that I'm excited about… more on it some time in the future.

Though I wasn't there for long, this was a chance to reconnect with the local wine culture. I visited 6 different wineries and had plenty of wine throughout each day.  This trip reminded me of how people in the "old world" live with wine.

For example, there just isn't much wine drinking happening without food.  Be it a simple bread and cheese spread or an all out meal, wine comes with food. Some of you may have already realized that many wines which don't taste good on their own, can taste much better with food. This is at times an argument used to justify bad wines, but a bad wine is not "fixed" by adding food. To put it in simple terms, what I'm referring to is a style of wine which is higher in acidity, lower in alcohol, less "extracted"... these are the types of wines which tend to be more pleasant with food. I also think that drinking wine with food simply allows people to drink more... and that's not a bad thing.

Another aspect that I find interesting is how few people speak about grape variety when drinking wine. When the grapes are brought into the discussion it's usually of secondary relevance, sort of a minor detail.  The emphases is mostly on how the wine actually tastes regardless of what grapes went into its making.  My own experience is that here in the US most people (myself included many times) have pre-conceived notions on how well they'll enjoy a wine based on knowing the grapes in it. Some people even feel uneasy about drinking a wine without knowing the grapes used in its making.  Though there isn't anything wrong with wanting to educate ourselves about the different taste profiles of each variety, I feel that we must not let it be the main determining factor in our wine drinking decisions and experiences.

The US has become a major wine drinking country but we are still learning how to live with wine in our daily lives. I hope that we can learn and benefit from some of our European counterparts approach. I believe we can do this without losing our identity.