Over the past weekend, I made the slightly long trip on down to the Travessia Urban Winery in New Bedford, MA. The initial reason for the visit was because I am joining Swirl Smell Slurp on their United Slurps of America campaign. If you haven’t heard of it, their goal is to drink wine from all 50 states and invite a blogger from that state to taste along. I was more than happy to join in and to have an excuse for a Saturday afternoon trip down to the winery (as a side note, their blog post will be up on Monday, May 3rd).

I’ve met the winemaker Marco Montez many times at tastings and when I arrived, he was very happy to pour samples of each of what he had. He specializes in small production white wines because those are the grapes best suited for the growing climate in Massachusetts. He produces anywhere from 100-125 cases for each wine right now, but who knows how big they’ll grow to in the coming years.

A lot of people are surprised to learn that all of his whites (and the rose) are, indeed, made from 100% Massachusetts grown grapes. At this point, I’ve tasted the wines enough that I’m not shocked anymore. I know the wines are very good and well crafted and it’s an added bonus that I can tell people that Massachusetts makes some killer wines.

The white wines that we tasted through were 2008 Pinot Grigio, 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay, 2007 Chardonnay, the 2007 and 2008 vintages of Vidal Blanc (my personal favorite), and the 2008 Bastard Rose. Their oaked Chardonnay was the first oaked Chardonnay that I ever actually liked enough to buy. The 2007 is sold out now (I wonder why) but I remember it being just enough of the buttery/oaky thing and not overpowering. My absolute favorite is the 2008 Vidal Blanc, though. I can’t say enough good things about it (but for my full review, you’ll have to wait until Monday!).

Now, for those of you not super into whites, they do have red wines, but all of the grapes are sourced from California they have opted to put totally different labels on those bottles in order to distinguish that these aren’t Massachusetts grapes. The one available for customers to taste and buy is the Trapeze Pinot Noir.

Here’s where I get to the good part. There’s a red still aging in barrel that he quite generously let me try. It’s called the Jester and is a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Petite Sirah. Having never had a barrel sample before, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I’ve had young wines that are extremely tannic, so I guess I was bracing for that but that’s not what I got. It was smooth, tannic (but not overly so), and just flat out delicious. If he had that wine for sale when I was there, I would have left with it and I’m not the only one saying that. Not too long ago, he had his wine club members down to the winery and offered them barrel samples as well as the opportunity to buy futures. He sold nearly 10 cases in futures! Not bad for a big yummy red that’s still super young.

That was only my second visit to the winery, but it was fun, informative, and delicious. If you’re in Massachusetts or plan to visit here, I’d absolutely recommend that you try to get there. The wines will knock your socks off and I bet you’ll leave with a few bottles. I think I already need to restock and it’s been about 5 days. Either that or I have a problem but I hope it’s not that.

Cheers!