Wines

For our wines, we carefully select only grapes from old-growth, hillside vineyards with low harvest-yields to intensify the ripe flavors and aromas of the grapes.  Moreover, we hand-harvest the grapes when they taste ripe, not when they have a predetermined sugar level (we have found that, even with a theoretical ideal sugar level, the grapes do not necessarily have the flavors we want, so we pick on how they taste), and then hand-sort the grapes to help ensure that only the best fruit is used in our wine.  We then craft our wine with a maximal naturalist / minimal interventionist approach, age our wine only in high-quality French oak barrels, and bottle our wine when the ripe berry flavors have been enriched, but not overwhelmed, by the oak.

Our objective is make a food-friendly, high-quality, medium-bodied, well-integrated, moderate-alcohol wine that will complement your food, and that will enable you to taste and experience the natural, ripe, lush flavors and bouquet, and the rich varietal character and supple mouth-feel of our wine.

We produce a limited selection and quantity of wines in order to maintain the artisan, high-quality standards of our wine.  Specifically, if we think the grapes are suitable at harvest, we produce some of the following varietal red wines:

 
  • Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Syrah
  • Petite Sirah
  • Zinfandel
  • Our 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon is sold out!  However, we made more of our 2004 Syrah, so we still have some of it available on a first-come, first-served basis.  In any case, it's OK...we have now released our 2005 vintage wines, and we are really excited about these wines!

    Our 2005 vintage wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Zinfandel, and are crafted in the same elegant style as our 2003 and 2004 vintage wines.  

    Our 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon received a Gold Medal at the 2008 Wine Critics Challenge Wine Competition.  Our 2005 Zinfandel received a Silver Medal at the 2008 Los Angeles International Wine Competition.

    Our 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon received a Silver Medal at the 2007 Los Angeles International Wine Competition.

    Our 2003 Syrah received a Gold Medal at the 2006 Los Angeles International Wine Competition, as well as a Gold Medal at the 2007 National Women's Wine Competition (they also designated this wine as a "Certified Women Love It" Wine)!

    All of our 2005 wines were (1) barrel-aged for 17 months in high-quality French oak barrels (we used a mix of new and one-vintage-old barrels in order to give the wines the optimum time in the barrels to soften their tannins, to integrate their flavors, and to extract enough oak tannins to enhance the flavor and taste complexity of our wines without over-whelming the fruit flavors), and then (2) bottle-aged for 12 months before releasing them to give the wines time to "relax" (to get over "bottle shock") and to further develop their soft tannins, rich flavors, and balanced, smooth, mouth-feel and finish.

    All of our wines have been crafted in an elegant, medium-bodied, very food-friendly style, with moderate-alcohol and soft French oak tannins, and are well-integrated, well-balanced with ripe berry flavors and delicious, subtle bouquets of varietal fruits and aromas:

    2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
    This varietal is made from world-class grapes grown in the Stags Leap District appellation in Napa Valley.  It is a fruit-forward, lusciously structured, supple wine with a medium-bodied mouthfeel and subtle flavors of ripe currant (cassis), blackberry, plum, and black pepper.
    <<Click image for larger view

    2005 Syrah
    This varietal is made from mature-vine grapes from the the highly-regarded California Shenandoah Valley appellation in Amador County.   It is a delicious, fruit-forward, medium-bodied wine with subtle flavors of ripe black cherry, blackberry, leather, mushroom, and black pepper.
    <<Click image for larger view

    2005 Zinfandel
    This varietal is made from old-vine grapes from
    the highly-regarded Russian River Valley appellation in Sonoma County.  It is a medium-bodied, very supple, well-balanced wine with subtle flavors of ripe black cherry, blackberry, black pepper, licorice, and leather.
    <<Click image for larger view

    If you would like to purchase our wines, please go to our Order page.  If you would like to receive our Wine Club discounts and first notification of our next wine release, please join our Wine Club.

    Back to Top

    Home | Dining | Pairings | Order | About Us | Wine Club | Contact Us

    Copyright 2003, Traverso Wines, Inc., P.O. Box 4204, Davis, CA 95617    Tel.: 530-759-4900
    By using this site, you are agreeing to its Terms and Conditions