Travieso Winery, Campbell

Ray Sliter is a California-born marine geologist, and Mats Hagstrom a Swedish-born physician, but they claim at least one common passion—wine. The duo began crafting wine when, one day in 1999, Mats arrived at Ray’s door with a half-ton of grapes, given to him by a patient, and a used barrel. They launched their wine-making pursuit nearly immediately and, in 2005, became fully bonded as Travieso Winery. Today, the duo hold close to their original principles—they purchase grapes by the acre to ensure control, stir in wild yeast, and limit suflites during production. They press each of their wines in new french-oak barrels, and age the concoctions for at least a year, even when they're really thirsty. The end result is a range of cheekily themed Spanish- and California-style wines, which their tasting room supplies by the bottle or introduces by the glass at Saturday tastings.