Paradise is: Sauvignon Blanc, a Sunset View, and a Sculpture Garden

Paradise Ridge Winery is more than just another Sonoma County tasting room. The Santa Rosa winery is equal parts great wine, relaxing view, unique outdoor art garden, and family affair with a touch of local history for good measure. IntoWine.com recently caught up with Paradise's Rene Byck to chat about what makes the winery a worthy oenephile destination spot.

Let's start out with your wines. Paradise Ridge is particularly known for its Sauvignon Blanc and its Cabernet. Tell us a bit about your wines, your grapes, and your winemaking process.

Our first vineyards were planted in 1978 and that was the "Grandview Vineyard" Sauvignon Blanc (10 acres). We added about 8 more acres of vineyards that we called the "Nagasawa Vineyard" in 1985. In 1996 we started to purchase some fruit from Ladi Danelek and that was the start of our red wine program. Present day wines are made from Estate fruit here in the Russian River Valley and fruit from the exclusive Rockpile AVA. Our main varietals are Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon. We do make small lots of Rose', Sparkling Wine, Merlot, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and even a little late harvest Sauvignon Blanc.

Our winemaking process consists of four unique things. We green harvest our grapes meaning that we pass through the vineyards and drop fruit before we harvest a minimum of four times a year. We also cold soak all of our fruit, do submerged cap fermentation on all the reds and we also do a long cold fermentation on all the rest of the wines.