Our Founders:
Proprietors Ken & Julie Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe were childhood friends who grew up in Liverpool, England then went on to produce the American primetime hit TV show, American Idol. Ken and Nigel also dreamed of owning a vineyard, and as luck would have it, they discovered Paso Robles while traveling between audition cities for the show. They purchased VSJ in 2005 after falling in love with the terroir and the idea of winemaking. In 2006, they began the process of transforming and replanting the vineyard, which was originally planted in the 1980s and replanted about a decade later. Almost 20 years later, Villa San Juliette has emerged as a producer of top- rated wines and a premier wine destination on the Central Coast.
Winemaker Dan Smith
An Oregon native, Dan grew up influenced by the Pinot Noir vineyards of the Willamette Valley. He went on to study Wine & Viticulture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo before embarking on a journey to fine tune his craft in wine regions worldwide. In 2013, Dan joined the winemaking team at Villa San Juliette and took the lead as head winemaker in 2015.
The dynamic winemaking style at VSJ achieves balance and complexity while highlighting the natural character of the fruit. The wines are made in small lots with precision and care, aged in French barrels, and blended throughout the aging process to fully integrate the flavors that result in cohesive and elegant wines.
