The Smiths of Paraiso

Rich and Claudia Smith arrived in Monterey County in 1973, their children and belongings in the car. Fresh out of college, the young couple was searching for the perfect locale to try out their newly-minted U.C. Davis training. Thirty-five  years later, the Smith Family is one of the most influential and respected growers on California's Central Coast.

The Smith family has been instrumental in Monterey's rise to prominence as a world class winegrowing region. Today Rich and his son Jason oversee 3,000 acres of grapes throughout Monterey County, providing fruit to many famous producers. In 1988, the Smiths began producing very limited, much sought-after wines under their own Paraiso banner... The definition of a pioneer is not simply being the first into a new area or endeavor - the term pioneer implies vision, toil, innovation, and success that beckons others to follow. Paraiso's Smith Family has, through four decades, been innovators. From scholastic research to practical hands-on knowledge, they have helped "write the book" on everything to do with growing vinifera in Monterey County. They took the lead in perfecting many of today's industry standards - mechanical harvesting, mobile vineyard pressing, and advanced trellising and irrigation systems. They helped outline and establish the Santa Lucia Highlands American Viticultural Area, today recognized as one of the country's premier appellations. And, as a founding member of the Central Coast Vineyard Team, Paraiso Vineyards was the first in the region to codify and institute protocols for truly "green," sustainable winegrowing. 

 When the young Smith family arrived on the scene in the early 1970s, the fertile Salinas Valley had not changed much since John Steinbeck decades ago described its beautiful scenery and hard working vegetable crop farmers. A few major out-of-the-area wineries had planted large, commercial tracts of grapes here but their fruit left the region to be blended into wines elsewhere. From Day One, Rich and Claudia Smith saw in the region's unique climate and soils the potential for another kind of winegrowing: hands-on, close-to-the-land, truly reflecting a Monterey "sense of place." Today, the Smiths could easily rest on their laurels as one of America's first families of wine. But the second generation is continuing the legacy with ambitious new plantings on the home estate and a new state of the art winery. As always, though, at Paraiso it is all about family: Rich's son Jason is general manager. Daughter-in-law Jennifer Murphy-Smith handles Paraiso's hospitality operations. Son-in-law David Fleming is Paraiso's award-winning winemaker. Paraiso is the very definition of an artisan, family wine estate...