Travessia Winery

Portugal Dream Team Harvest 2024, day 1. Morgado’s Vineyard White grapes. Just about 2 tons of handpicked fruit from this beautiful old vineyard.

If you missed last month’s Travessia wine and Penada olive oil tasting at Portugalia Marketplace... I’ll be back at it this Friday (12/22) from 11AM to 2PM. Would love to catch up with some “old faces” and meet some new ones :-) P.S. Pictured is THE crew that works hard to bring the "goods" to life… I’m really just representing them.

Travessia wine & Penada olive oil tasting this Saturday Nov.25th, 11AM to 2PM at Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River, MA. Winemaker Marco Montez will be pouring his sustainably farmed wines and olive oil made at his family's vineyard in Portugal.

Thanks to you can buy TRAVESSIA wines in Rhode Island. Let us know if you need help finding our wines at your favorite wine shop or restaurant.

Should some red wines be chilled? Brands of Portugal can help you…

Let’s talk about some ill-conceived wine notions:

You can drink whites, rosés & reds all year long. Rosé is not just sweet & for women, just because you tried wine once & didn’t like it doesn’t mean you don’t like ALL wine (do you realize how many countries produce wine? How many different grape varieties there are? Types of terroir? Winemaking methods? The combination of all those make the options endless) Just because you got a headache from wine doesn’t mean ALL wine will give you a headache or that you're allergic to sulfites...that’s a whole other topic for sure.

The moral of the story is…..keep tasting wine, to refine & find what you like and dislike!

Today let’s talk about chilling red wines, yes some can be chilled! In fact we drink MOST red wines way too hot. A medium to full body red should be at 60-64°F….unless you live in a dark musty castle, that’s not room temperature :-) If a wine is too hot, the alcohol will push through making it “sting” a bit. If it’s too cold it will dull the flavor and the tannins will come through more astringent.

A light-bodied easy-to-drink red can be chilled to 55°-57°F. Not ice cold but chilled. If you don’t have a wine refrigerator & if it’s at room temperature put it in a regular refrigerator 2 hours before serving, or if you keep it in the refrigerator take it out an hour before serving. We love to chill some of our reds, especially in the summer!

If you’re nervous about having the right temperature purchase a wine bottle digital thermometer cuff, or an infrared wine thermometer, they're affordable and will help you in getting the wine to the right temperature so that the winemakers intended flavors come through.

Some Portuguese grape varietals that typically produce light to medium-bodied reds that you may want to chill: Alfrocheiro, Aragonez, Baga, Castelão, Jaen, Tinta Amarela and believe it or not dare I say it Touriga Nacional. With over 250 grape varieties in Portugal I’m sure I’m also missing a few.

Here are our red wines that we suggest trying chilled this summer!

Caminhos Cruzados Titular Dão Novo (100% Jaen)
Defio Wine Baga Clarete
espera.wines Castelão Nat’Cool
Hugo Mendes / The Wizard Apprentice Lisboa Castelão
Lutra Tinto by Quinta da Alorna (Touriga Nacional, Castelão & Trincadeira)
Quinta da Alorna Castelão
Quinta do Piloto Alfrocheiro
Torre de Palma Basilii (Tinta Miúda, Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez & Touriga Nacional)
Travessia Winery Tinto (Tinta Amarela, Tinta Roriz & Touriga Nacional)

Wine is such a personal taste, what I may like, others may not, and that’s why we have so many options. If you don’t like a wine chilled…..just let it warm up, super interesting to see how the flavors evolve in your glass.

Drinking wine doesn’t have to be pretentious, we’re all about making it more inclusive. So try different wines, at different temperatures and with different foods, it will keep changing for you. Remember, drinking wine with friends, with a good meal and a fantastic conversation is ALWAYS the wine you will remember the most!

For details on these wines and where to find them, message us. Tell us what you think about this post, do you already chill reds or will you now try?

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Small Producers, Big Flavors (Travessia)

Join us from 6:30-8:00 pm on May 17th, 2023, as we welcome you into our tasting room and showcase wines of with winemaker Marco Montez!

This is a free event but to reserve your space we ask each attendee to make a $15 donation towards a new cause/non-profit for each event.

This month, we will feature VWD connect.org This foundation directly supports patients who suffer from the same bleeding disorder that Chris has, Von Willebrand’s Disease Severe. Chris has type III severe which is the rarest and only 500 people in the USA have it! (I always said he was 1 in a million 🙂) This organization has really helped him in the last few years in better managing his disease and meeting new people with VWD.

Details:

For the first time in our in-house tasting series, we will have the winemaker and owner Marco Montez joining us from Travessia. We will be tasting his 3 wines: Branco (white), Rosé, and Tinto (red), and also add in two other wines from a different producer for a total of 5 wines.

As always, we try to add some education and fun, it's a perfect friends' night or date night. Seating is limited so don't wait!

We are offering add-on Charcuterie options thanks to our friend, Elyse at Graze on Main which includes a selection of unique cheeses, meats, assorted fruit, crackers & jam/honey. Choose a "Mini" for 1 or a "Duo" for 2.

Get your tickets on the Brands of Portugal website events page!

My TRAVESSIA wines are now available in Rhode Island via Very limited quantity available of our dilicious Touriga Franca rosé.

Two Travessia free wine tastings this weekend:

Friday, 12/9, 4PM-6PM at CV Liquors - 550 Russells Mills Rd, Dartmouth, MA 02748

Sunday, 12/11, 11AM-2PM at The Drawing Room, 22 William Street, New Bedford, MA 02740

Winemaker Marco Montez will be pouring his sustainably farmed wines made at his family's vineyard in Portugal.

It’s been years in the making but it has finally happened… TRAVESSIA wines are now available in the state of Rhode Island thanks to the courage and vision of

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Introducing to our portfolio!

Winemaker and owner Marco Montez started his journey in the world of wine as a child living in a small village in the Tras-Os-Montes region of Portugal. Every September he would help his family and neighbors with the grape harvest. Wines were made in an artisan manner to be consumed by family and friends. Grape stomping with one’s feet was not a romantic or cool way to crush grapes, it was the only way.

Located in the northeastern corner of Portugal, the region of Trás-os-Montes is cut off from the ocean by high mountains and experiences a dramatic continental climate of hot summers and cold winters. Native grape varieties here are the norm, and it is a region that is just coming to have international recognition for its quality and traditional styles. The grapes grown here by the Montez family since the 1970’s show incredible consistency in their balance, powerful aromatics, and remarkable ability to pair wonderfully with a variety of dishes. This wine is sustainably farmed and organic.

Marco lives in the USA right here in New England, and has been a winemaker here since the early 2000's. Marco goes "home" to harvest and make wine at his family's estate every year. He spends much time there making sure even though a small production, that his wines represent this region and his family perfectly.

Side Note: Marco used to own his own winery with a storefront right in Downtown New Bedford across the street from where Chris & I had our very first studio together back in 2010. I even used the location for photography couple of times. It is really amazing, how everything has come full circle!

Thank you Marco for trusting us to represent your product in Rhode Island!

Tinta Barroca, one of the shinning stars in our vineyard and one of the first red varieties that we harvest.

“Em qualquer aventura, O que importa é partir, não é chegar.” -Miguel Torga
“In any adventure what matters is leaving, not arriving.”

Day 1 of harvest 2022 at the vineyard in Portugal. Malvasia Fina and Fernão Pires picked early today. The heat and draught this Summer showing in the juice… low acid but highly concentrated flavors. It will surely be a much smaller crop than usual but with tremendous quality potential. ☀️🍇🍷

Update Aug.7th, 2022: Thank You to everyone who came to the tasting. What an incredible turnout! I couldn’t believe how quickly the 3 hours went by. It was fun to see familiar faces and meet new ones. I hope you enjoy the wines even more in the comfort of your home. Hope to see you all again before long.

Travessia wine tasting this Saturday August 6th, 11AM to 2PM at Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River, MA. Winemaker Marco Montez will be pouring his sustainably farmed wines made at his family's vineyard in Portugal.