About Us
Having grown up in an extended, Italian
immigrant family, homemade red wine was served by my grandfathers
to everyone at the dinner table (including us kids) during
our highly-animated, multi-course, home-made, eat-until-it-hurts-because-it-is-so-good
meals (for us kids, my grandfathers would serve a little wine
and a lot of water, but, as we got older, they served us more
wine and less water, until, as teenagers, we were served straight
wine...our rite of passage). As a result, our perception is that wine is
simply another component of our meal. Our approach
to crafting our wine reflects our philosophy that food and
wine are complimentary and to be enjoyed with each other.
My wine-making began when I started making
wine with my immigrant Italian grandfather and my father in
the mid-1960's while I was in graduate school. After
finishing graduate school in 1969, I moved to Davis for my
first job in city management, and then discovered that the
University of California at Davis (UCD) had a whole School
of Enology and Viticulture. However, having just started
my first job out of graduate school, being married with small
kids, and having a mortgage, it was not possible to pursue
a degree in enology at that time. So, while working
full-time, I took wine-making classes through UCD's Extension
Service and continued to make wine at home. After retiring
as City Manager of Davis in 1992, I continued to make wine
at home, and did management consulting for several years,
including serving as the Interim Executive Director for the
California Gambling Control Commission in 2000. I then decided that,
after 31 years, I had served the public very well and for long enough, that
I had enough of politics, and that it was time to pursue my "passion" (wine-making).
For years, friends had been suggesting that I should sell
my wine. In 2001, I decided to do so, and began developing
my business plan. In 2002,
Traverso Wines started wine-making operations,
and released our 2002 vintage wines in 2005. Traverso
Wines are now available for your dining
enjoyment (please refer to our "Wines"
page and to our "Dining" page)!
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As a reflection of this philosophy
about food and wine, we have developed a suggested food
and wine "Pairings" page
in our web site for your dining enjoyment. As
we develop more suggestions, we will add them to this
section. If you have any suggestions for us to
try, please send us an email and share them with us...we
appreciate, and are open to, your suggestions.
"Buon appetito!" |
Carli & Bob Traverso: Doing Cooking
Demo on Bob's Italian-Style Stuffed Grape Leaves at
the Slow Food Festival at Copia in Napa.
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