Ferreira y Pérez Wine Blog

Our name and logo ...

2010-07-09T01:17:00.000-07:00

First, I'll be perfectly frank: My wife and I are blessed in that the natural combination of our surnames actually turns out to be a damned cool name for a winery.

What do I mean by the "natural combination of our surnames"? Well, for uncounted generations people in both of our families have carried both their father's and their mother's surname. And while I, being American, have renounced that tradition, my wife still signs 2 surnames on formal documents -- Pérez Santillan.

When discussing what naming convention our children would use, there arose several options: "Ferreira Perez", "Perez de Ferreira", "Perez Ferreira" (Portuguese style) and finally "Ferreira y Perez" (which I believe is the prefered convention among the Catalan people).

When it came time to think of a name to put on our first bottles of wine (in 2007), the choice was clear. Since making wine is, in some ways, like making a child, we went with "Ferreira y Perez".

Our logo is a light-hearted combination of the key elements of my wife's and my own family's coat of arms. Since both names are quite common in their respective languages, the coats (escudos) are quite well documented.

In the case of my wife's shield, the fleur-de-lis is the dominant symbol. (Indeed, there are something like 10 fleurs-de-lis on it.)

My family's coat is a little more complex, but the most recognizeable symbol is the stork holding a horseshoe in his beak. The horseshoe represents the smithing craft (Ferreira means blacksmith in Portuguese). And the stork represents making babies -- ok I just made that up. I have no idea what it represents.

Some folks may have seen the name "Ferreira" and the horseshoe-eating stork used in the wine industry before: The A.A. Ferreira company of Porto, Portugal is possibly the best known producer of Port wine in the world. While I am a huge admirer of Dona Antonia Ferreira, I am, alas, no relation. And the commonality of the stork holding a horseshoe is as coincidental as our shared surname.

Our Mission ...

2010-07-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering why all this hullabaloo (logos, labels, a website, blog and Facebook group) over what is essentially homebrew -- wine produced in a home without a license for our own personal consumption.

Well, the simple reason is that we plan on pursuing a license within the next 3 years.

Our mission has several phases:

Phase I: Learn to make oustanding wine (both red and white) at home.
Create an image.
Phase II: Get a license and sell enough wine to cover our costs while increasing the quality and volume of our production (ie, become licensed hobbyists). 50-200 cases / year.
Phase III: If we can cover our costs with 50 cases / year (and I think we can), then we can begin scaling up 1,000 - 5,000 cases per year. This may be beyond my lifetime. Part of my mission is to leave a financially solvent, commercial winery to my children, should they wish to pursue this endeavor.

In the meantime, I'd like to learn not only how to make wine, but how to label and market it -- how to create a buzz. By the time we actually get a license, I'd like to have a following of people ready to buy our product in several different states.

I'm also curious to get people's feedback on my labelling, logo and name (all of which I will explain in the next post).

F&P Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 in bottle ...

2010-07-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

F&P Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 was bottled last Friday and Saturday (July 2 & 3, 2010).

We are very pleased with the outcome, even at this early stage and expect that this vintage will only improve with more time in bottle.

If you have had a chance to taste it, please leave your comments as a response to this posting.

Thanks,

Dave Ferreira