The Vineyards

Carina Cellars started out making wine with Joey Tensley in a winery shared with Tensley Wines in Buellton in Santa Barbara County. With our focus on Rhône grape varietals - principally Syrah - we identified the best vineyards in the County and worked with the vineyard owners/growers to produce fruit in a style that best expressed their vineyards. These vineyards were generally in the hotter, eastern parts of the Santa Ynez Valley appellation.

But we also like Cabernet Sauvignon and have been able to obtain grapes from - where else - Napa Valley.

And we never stopped looking for great vineyards, especially for sources of great Rhône grape varietals, and have been working with vineyard owner/growers in the Paso Robles appellation since 2005.

This lead us to establishing Carina Cellars’ own estate vineyard and winery in Paso Robles, named Rancho del Cielo (Ranch of the Sky) for its steeply sloping vineyards. After construction on our new winery was completed in fall 2008, we moved our entire production up to Paso in December. The first wines will be produced there in 2009. Our estate vineyards and winery are currently open to visitors Friday-Sunday from 11am-5pm, and Monday-Thursday by appointment.

We will continue to obtain grapes from the best vineyards we know, both in the Santa Ynez Valley as well as Paso Robles, and of course our own estate vineyards. Stay tuned!