TRAVESSIA Winery Blog

Don Burton Producer & Director of "Homeland"

This week I had the pleasure to sit down with Don Burton, Producer and Director of the movie "Homeland" which was filmed on location in downtown New Bedford.  The short-film premiered this past Sunday at New Bedford's Zeiterion Theater.

This is my third video blog post, the first with a guest.  We were having such a good conversation that the video ended up a bit longer than I wished.  I thought about breaking it into two posts, but after watching it myself I decided to just post it all at once.  For those who don't have the time for the entire video, here is a timeline to help you decide what you want to watch:

0:05 - Introduction
1:00 - Who is Don Burton
1:45 - "Homeland" the movie
4:45 - How Don ends up in Los Angeles
8:15 - Hollywood East - Plymouth Rock Studios
9:25 - BridgeThink.org
12:50 - How about some wine?
16:00 - The bottle in the brown bag...
21:20 - Storing open wine bottles in the fridge
24:18 - Final word

Links of Interest:
Homeland the movie     Bridgethink.org     Flickering Spaces     Plymouth Rock Studios

2008 wine notes

Over the last four months I’ve dedicated most of my time to Travessia’s marketing and sales.  It’s been fun but I was really itching to get back in the winery/lab.  So this past weekend I tasted the 2008 wines that we made at the end of last year.  Did I miss this stuff!  It was great to taste and try to envision the direction that these 2008 wines may take in the next few months.

My practice is to let wines “settle in” after fermentation is complete, taking advantage of the natural cooler winter temperatures in the winery. No pressure, no rush.  It’s like welcoming a guest into your house, showing them the guest room (or couch) and then leaving them alone for a few hours so that they can settle in on their one and make themselves comfortable.

2008 was a very different year from 2007.  Average heat but considerably more rainfall than in 2007.  As a result, grape sugar levels at harvest were lower than usual.  In some cases the degree of ripeness required for the fuller body wines like some of the ones we made in 2007 was not fully achieved.  Winemaking was certainly a lot more challenging in 2008.

Most of the Pinot Noir was lost to rot, with the exception of a single barrel which we harvested from what is practically a single row in the vineyard.  Imagine red raspberries…. Pour them into a barrel and let them have a party of their one.  That’s what this wine is tasting like right now.  Incredible for such a young wine.  Too bad there is only a single barrel of it, which is the same as saying 300 bottles.  This is the sort of wine which due to its very small quantity, may be available for purchase to Travessia wine club members only…. I’m just saying ;-)

All of the 2008 white wines seem very promising confirming what I already know… that we can consistently make quality white wines with grapes grown exclusively in Massachusetts.

* Pictured - a chromatography test result for a few different 2008 wines.  Four spots on the left indicate mallolactic fermentation (aka MLF) was completed.  Four spots on the right indicate that mallolactic is not yet completed.

Highs and Lows

OK, so I have to work on my camera positioning skills and on the "aahs"... but here is my second video blog post.  As always, I would love to read your comments.