Is Bob Travers an anachronism? Are the wines he makes of another era? The short answers are yes and yes. But the longer, more analytical rejoinder would be: only if you think that just because a man has been making wine for nearly 40 years, he is automatically a relic. And, while his wines have been eschewed in recent years because they are not out-of-balance, alcohol-laden jelly giants, it seems that his kind of wine is just beginning to peer through the scrim.

Which means that Bob Travers and his Mayacamas Vineyards -- which were all the rage in the 1970s and ‘80s -- just may be back in fashion again soon.

For some of us, they’ve never been out of style, especially for those of us who are over 50 and were weaned on European-style wines.

Travers, 68, has been making long-lived wines since 1968 in an old stone winery, dating from 1889. “Long-lived” means wines that are relatively low in alcohol with substantial tannins and are, as a result, in balance. Travers’ Napa Valley winery is perched next to a dormant volcano on a remote ridge on top of Mount Veeder in the southeastern portion of the Mayacamas mountains, from which the winery takes its name.

He makes about 4,000-6,000 cases a year from his 53 acres, which will soon increase to 57. Travers doesn’t employ the latest winemaking equipment in his cellar, nor does he release his wines at the whim of some marketing hack.

In other words, Travers makes wines like they used to and if you think your kind of wine ain’t Travers’ kind of wine, let me tell you something, brother, you’d be missing something if you passed them by.

Travers spoke to Appellation America’s Napa Valley correspondent Alan Goldfarb shortly after the vintner had completed bringing in his grapes from the 2006 vintage.