Step off State Street into the Funk Zone on a warm Santa Barbara afternoon, a few blocks from the ocean, and Paradise Springs greets you with a patio, a putting green, and a glass that has crossed a continent to reach you. This is the West Coast home of the first bicoastal winery brand in the United States, a Virginia label that planted a second flag in Santa Barbara County and started making Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of its own. It is wine country with a backbeat, and on Saturdays an actual DJ.

The story

Paradise Springs began three thousand miles east, in Clifton, Virginia, where Kirk Wiles founded Fairfax County’s first and only winery in 2007. He had come home from the University of Miami in 2004 and connected the dots on a project nobody else had finished, and the wines came faster and better than anyone expected. By the 2013 harvest he was asking the obvious next question: where could this go.

The answer was California. In the early summer of 2014 Paradise Springs was licensed by the state and a second operation took shape in Santa Barbara County, making it the first bicoastal winery brand in the country. Rather than build a cellar from scratch, Wiles partnered with the respected Santa Barbara winemaker Doug Margerum and set up shop in shared winemaking space in Buellton, alongside Margerum Wine Company and other small producers. Rob Cox, the head winemaker in Virginia, took on the role of executive winemaker for the California wines, with Wiles overseeing both coasts.

The gorgeous downtown tasting room opened in January 2018, tucked into the heart of the Funk Zone just off State Street. It is the rare room where you can taste two coasts side by side, the cool-climate California bottlings next to the wines from the Virginia hills, and decide for yourself which terroir speaks to you.

The place

The California wines are grown in two of Santa Barbara County’s most distinctive appellations, and the geography here is unlike anywhere else on the coast. The mountain ranges run east to west rather than north to south, the only stretch of the California coast that does this, and that orientation funnels cool Pacific air and morning fog straight inland. The result is dramatic daily temperature swings, sunbaked afternoons and sweater-cool nights, which let the grapes ripen fully while holding onto the bright acidity that keeps the wines alive.

The heart of the Paradise Springs California program lives in the Sta. Rita Hills, the cool, fog-fed appellation that has become one of the most celebrated cool-climate sites in the New World for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Marine air pours in from the Pacific through the open mouth of the valley, and the diatomaceous and sandy soils, laid down by an ancient seabed, give the wines their tension and lift. For the white that needs more sun, Paradise Springs reaches east to Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara, the county’s warmest appellation, where Sauvignon Blanc develops real depth and structure.

What they grow and make

The California operation is small and focused, producing around 1,500 cases a year, which means the wines are made in batches a person can actually keep an eye on. The lineup concentrates on what the Sta. Rita Hills does best. The Chardonnay draws on celebrated cool-climate fruit, including the storied Sanford and Benedict vineyard, and aims for the balance the appellation is known for, orchard fruit and citrus held up by a spine of crisp acidity rather than buried under oak.

The Pinot Noir is the wine that says the most about why the brand came west. Sta. Rita Hills Pinot is built on cool nights and long hang time, and at its best it is red-fruited and perfumed, with the silky texture and savory edge that make this appellation a darling of sommeliers. Alongside it the cellar makes a Sta. Rita Hills Syrah, a darker, more peppery red that shows the cooler, more elegant face of the grape, and from the warmer ground of Happy Canyon a Sauvignon Blanc and Bordeaux-style reds and blends. Taste them next to the Virginia bottlings on the same visit and the difference between the two coasts becomes a lesson you can drink.

Visiting

The Paradise Springs tasting room is one of the most relaxed stops on the Funk Zone wine trail, the kind of place built for an afternoon rather than a quick flight. There is a putting green on site, outdoor patio seating, and live music that turns Saturdays into a small party, with a DJ on the patio in the late afternoon. Tastings are first come, first served, so there is no reservation to fuss with, just walk in. The room pours both the California and Virginia wines, which makes it a genuinely unusual experience among Santa Barbara tasting rooms.

Food pairing

These wines were grown for the table, and the Sta. Rita Hills lineup gives you a clean run from white to red. Start with the Chardonnay, whose bright acidity and orchard fruit make it a natural with anything from the sea, grilled halibut, a platter of oysters, or a roast chicken with lemon and herbs. The acid cuts the richness of butter and cream and resets the palate for the next bite, which is exactly why it sings next to a creamy pasta or a wedge of soft cheese. The Pinot Noir is the great middle-of-the-table wine: its red fruit and savory edge share earthy, mushroomy notes with seared duck breast, grilled salmon, and mushroom risotto, a congruent match that makes wine and dish read as one. Pour the cooler-climate Syrah with something off the fire, tri-tip or the Santa Maria barbecue that is practically the county’s official dish, where the wine’s pepper and dark fruit meet the char head on. For a match dialed in to whatever you are actually cooking tonight, run it through our wine pairing generator.

To go deeper on the region, read our guide to the Sta. Rita Hills and the wider Santa Barbara wine country, learn what makes a great bottle in our California Pinot Noir guide and California Chardonnay guide, and let the wine pairing generator match a Paradise Springs bottle to whatever is on your table.