Most Paso tasting rooms close when the sun is still up. Kula keeps the lights on until eight, pairs its wine with Hawaiian plates from its own kitchen, and turns an evening into something closer to a dinner party. Chris and Ayako started Kula as grape growers in the El Pomar hills, kept the best of their fruit for themselves, and built a small, single-vineyard winery with a warmth, and an aloha, you can taste.

From growers to winemakers

Kula began the way many serious wineries do, in the vineyard. Chris and Ayako started as grape growers in 2014, farming their El Pomar estate and selling their Syrah to some of Paso Robles’ best-known wineries. The fruit was good enough that in 2016 they decided to keep some for themselves and make wine on their own terms, focused on small-production, single-vineyard, single-varietal bottlings that show exactly where they come from.

In 2019 they opened their first tasting room in nearby Atascadero, and as their wine club grew they moved into a larger space there in 2024. The tasting room comes with a distinctive twist: Kula Hawaiian Kitchen, an on-site restaurant that lets visitors pair the wines with island-inspired food, and gives the whole place its relaxed, generous, aloha spirit. It is a winery built around hospitality as much as around the grape.

Kula started as grape growers selling Syrah to Paso’s best wineries, then kept the fruit to make their own single-vineyard wines, paired with food from their on-site Hawaiian kitchen.

An estate in the El Pomar hills

Kula’s estate vineyard sits on 18 acres in the El Pomar District, the rolling, terraced heart of central Paso Robles, where deep loams and clay loams stretch across hills between roughly 740 and 1,600 feet. The district’s Region II climate is warm by day but cooled each evening by marine air working its way inland, the temperature swing that ripens reds fully while keeping their acidity and color.

That ground suits exactly what Kula grows. The warm El Pomar days give Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petite Sirah the ripeness and depth that define Paso reds, while the cool nights keep them balanced. By farming a single estate and bottling single varietals, Kula lets each grape and each block speak clearly, the whole point of their small-batch approach.

The wines: single-vineyard and true

Kula focuses on small-production, single-vineyard, single-varietal wines, an approach that prizes clarity over blending. The estate grows premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petite Sirah, the backbone of the lineup, alongside Rhone varieties, with a few grapes purchased from trusted neighboring vineyards to round things out.

The reds are the heart of it, structured and ripe in the El Pomar style but made in small enough lots to keep real character and detail. Petite Sirah brings inky power, the Cabernets bring structure and dark fruit, and the single-varietal bottlings let you taste each grape on its own terms. Paired with the food from Kula Hawaiian Kitchen, the wines become part of a genuinely different Paso experience, less a quick tasting, more a long, easy evening.

What to pour it with

Kula makes pairing easy by putting a kitchen on site, but the logic is worth knowing. The Petite Sirah, massive and tannic, wants rich, fatty food: kalua pork, short ribs, a fatty cut off the grill, where the protein and fat soften the wine’s big tannins. The Cabernet Sauvignon follows the steakhouse rule, marbled red meat that turns the tannins plush while the wine cuts the richness.

The Hawaiian angle opens fun possibilities. A touch of sweetness and salt in island-style dishes, teriyaki, huli huli chicken, a sweet-and-savory glaze, plays beautifully against fruit-forward reds, since salt tames tannin and lifts fruit. Just keep the heat in check, because spicy chili and high-alcohol reds amplify each other. The Cabernet Franc, with its savory, herbal side, suits grilled vegetables and lighter meats. Let the kitchen guide you and lean into the sweet-salty-savory island flavors.

Kula Vineyards & Winery: common questions