Varinder Sahi was born in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a Punjab village where his family had farmed the same ground for thirteen generations. He left to study electrical engineering, earned an MBA in Toronto, and built a corporate career that sent him traveling. Somewhere along the way, in a glass after a long day, the spark caught. He earned a winemaking certification at UC Davis, and in 2015 he and his wife Anita came looking for dirt that could carry a great Syrah. In 2017 they found it in the Willow Creek District: steep, cool, calcareous slopes that would become Copia.

From a Punjab village to a Paso hillside

Farming was never an abstraction for Varinder Sahi. It was the family trade going back more than three centuries, and even after engineering and an MBA pulled him into a corporate life, the pull of the land never quite let go. Wine entered through travel, region by region and glass by glass, until a private promise formed: when the schedule allowed, he would make it himself. The UC Davis certification turned the promise into a plan. Funds from the sale of ancestral Punjabi property helped buy the first California ground, and the search for a true home site led him and Anita to Paso Robles in 2015.

They did not buy a finished winery. They bought potential and went to work. In 2017 they planted fifty acres in the Willow Creek District, roughly 40,000 vines across two dozen distinct blocks, then added an Adelaida District site in 2022 to widen their palette. The decision that defines the place was a decision to specialize. Where many Paso estates chase a dozen varieties, the Sahis bet the property on Syrah and the Rhone family it travels with, trusting that focus would say more than range.

The flagship is named The Source because it is built from every Syrah block on the estate, the whole property poured into one bottle.

The limestone heart of the west side

Willow Creek is the limestone heart of Paso’s west side, and Copia sits in the thick of it. The slopes here climb on calcareous, Monterey-Formation loams and clay, soils built from an ancient seabed, with high bedrock that forces vines to dig and stresses them in the way great wine grapes seem to reward. The elevation matters too. These are cool, high benches, classed Region II, which in California terms means restraint rather than power for power’s sake.

The other engine is the Templeton Gap, a break in the coastal hills that pulls marine air inland off the Pacific most afternoons. The result is one of the largest day-to-night temperature swings in California wine country. Hot afternoons ripen the fruit and build flavor; cold nights slam the brakes and lock in acidity and color. For Syrah, that swing is the whole game, the difference between a wine that is merely big and one that is big and still lifted, peppery, and alive.

Wines with smoke, violets, and grip

Copia’s Syrahs lead with the variety’s wild, savory side. Expect violets and crushed blackberry up front, then a turn toward cracked black peppercorn, smoked meat, and cured tobacco, the kind of brooding profile that tells you the fruit got cold nights and the vines worked for it. The tannins are present but polished, more velvet than sandpaper, framing dark fruit rather than drying you out.

The Source is the statement wine, assembled from every Syrah block on the estate so that the bottle becomes a portrait of the whole property in a single vintage. Around it sit single-block and Rhone-styled releases that show how much one grape can change across a few hundred feet of hillside. Pour any of them with a few minutes of air and the smoke and violet notes bloom; these are wines that want a decanter and a little patience.

What to pour Copia with

Syrah and red meat is one of wine’s oldest handshakes, and the chemistry is simple. Tannin, the compound that grips the sides of your tongue, binds to protein and fat. Put a tannic Syrah next to a fat-marbled, red-oak-grilled tri-tip and the tannin latches onto the fat instead of your palate, so the wine tastes softer and rounder while the meat tastes cleaner. Char helps even more, because Copia’s smoke and pepper notes echo the grill rather than fight it. Lamb, short ribs, and anything off live fire are natural partners.

Watch two things. Heat amplifies the perception of alcohol, so a heavily spiced rub can make a full Syrah feel hotter than it is; keep the spice earthy rather than fiery. And acidity is your friend with fat, so a Syrah’s natural lift cuts through richness like a knife. If you want to test pairings before you uncork, run the dish through our wine pairing generator and build the plate around the bottle.

Visiting Copia Vineyards

A visit to Copia is a visit to the working estate, which is the point: you taste the Syrah looking at the slopes that grew it. Tastings are best arranged by reservation, and because hours shift with the season and with release weekends, confirm current times directly with the winery before you drive out. Give yourself the time to walk the view and let the wines open, and consider building a wider west-side day around the stop, since the surrounding Willow Creek and Adelaida hills hold some of Paso’s most serious addresses. For a fuller picture of the appellation and how to plan a route, our Paso Robles guide is a good place to start.

Copia Vineyards: common questions