Ryan Pease found wine the long way around. He was studying finance at Cal Poly when a part-time job at Linne Calodo pulled him into the cellar, and a trip to France sealed it, sipping the legendary Mourvedre of Domaine Tempier in Bandol on Bastille Day. In 2010 he and his wife, Nicole, founded Paix Sur Terre, French for Peace on Earth, with a clear and slightly stubborn mission: to make mineral-driven, savory Mourvedre on the west side of Paso Robles. The wines are built with whole-cluster fermentation, minimal oak, and a refusal to sand off Mourvedre’s wild edge.

Ryan and Nicole Pease and a Bandol obsession

Ryan Pease did not set out to make wine. He was a finance student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when a part-time job in the tasting room at Linne Calodo, one of Paso’s cult west-side producers, started to rewire his ambitions. The decisive moment came across the Atlantic. On a trip to France, sipping the wines of Domaine Tempier in Bandol around Bastille Day, he tasted what Mourvedre could be in the right hands and decided that was the wine he wanted to chase.

In 2010 Ryan and his wife, Nicole, founded Paix Sur Terre, French for Peace on Earth. The mission was narrow and deliberate. While most California producers treat Mourvedre as a supporting player, the grape that quietly props up a GSM blend, the Peases made it the star. Their wine called The Other One captures the joke and the philosophy at once, named both for Mourvedre’s usual role as the other one in the blend and for the Grateful Dead track, a nod to the grape’s spiritual, slightly psychedelic potency. You will often find Ryan or Nicole themselves pouring in the tasting room.

A Bastille Day glass of Domaine Tempier in Bandol set the whole course.

West-side Paso fruit and the pursuit of freshness

Paix Sur Terre is built entirely on west-side Paso Robles fruit, sourced from a set of vineyards across the cool western hills. This is the side of Paso defined by calcareous limestone soils and the marine cooling that pushes inland through gaps in the coastal range, and it is exactly the ground that gives Mourvedre the savory, mineral character Ryan is after. Limestone tends to translate into a saline, mineral lift and firm acidity in the glass, the backbone that keeps a savory red from feeling heavy.

The west side’s dramatic day-to-night temperature swing does the rest. Hot afternoons ripen Mourvedre, a notoriously late and stubborn grape, while cold nights preserve the acidity and aromatic detail that freshness depends on. Ryan picks with that freshness front of mind, harvesting to keep the wines mouthwatering and savory rather than jammy. The goal is the stylistic resonance of Bandol, the great Mourvedre region of southern France, translated into Paso’s particular light and soil rather than imitated outright.

The wines: Mourvedre with its wild edge intact

The heart of Paix Sur Terre is Mourvedre, and the wine that defines the label is The Other One, a single-grape Mourvedre that leans into what Ryan calls the variety’s feral funk. Expect dark berry and blue fruit wrapped in savory notes of cured meat, dried herb, leather, and earth, with firm tannins and a fresh, mineral finish. The defining technique behind that style is whole-cluster fermentation. In 2013 Ryan committed to 100 percent whole cluster, which builds the aromatic complexity and structural lift that pull the wines toward Bandol.

Minimal new oak is the other half of the recipe. By keeping oak in the background, the wines show site and grape rather than vanilla and toast, which is the whole point of a producer this site-obsessed. Around the flagship Mourvedre sit small lots of Grenache and Syrah and Rhone-style blends, plus Mediterranean-leaning whites, all built on the same principles of freshness, restraint, and clarity. These are wines for people who like savory over sweet and structure over flash, food wines first and foremost.

What to pour Paix Sur Terre with

Savory, structured Mourvedre is one of the great food reds, and it points straight at the grill. Pour The Other One with Paso’s red-oak-grilled tri-tip or with lamb, and the chemistry lines up perfectly: the wine’s firm tannins bind to the protein and fat of the meat, softening on the palate while the richness tames the grip, and the wine’s bright acidity cuts through the fat to keep everything fresh. Mourvedre’s earthy, herbal, cured-meat character also echoes the savory side of grilled and roasted dishes, so the flavors reinforce each other.

Think Provencal when you cook around these wines, in keeping with their Bandol inspiration: herb-roasted lamb, ratatouille, daube, grilled sausage, dishes with olives and thyme. The Grenache and Syrah bottlings flex toward roasted vegetables and braises, while the Mediterranean whites, with their cutting acidity, are built for seafood and anything rich. To pair a specific Paix Sur Terre bottle with a dish, our wine pairing generator can suggest matches that respect the wine’s savory structure and freshness.

Visiting Paix Sur Terre

Paix Sur Terre pours in Tin City, the cluster of warehouses and industrial-chic spaces just south of Paso Robles that has become the region’s most concentrated hub of small, ambitious producers. It is the perfect home for a label like this, low on pretense and high on substance, and a visit puts you within steps of breweries, a cidery, and a long list of fellow boutique winemakers, so you can taste widely on foot. Because the operation is small and personal, there is a real chance Ryan or Nicole will be the one pouring and talking you through the Mourvedre. To work Tin City and Paix Sur Terre into a broader trip, our Paso Robles guide lays out the districts and how they connect.

Paix Sur Terre: common questions