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)!

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.