Paul’s Story

Wine should be very pure and natural. The only thing synthetic about our wine is the closure, so you never have to worry about getting a “corked” wine. We drink more of our wine than anyone else, we want it to be healthful and nutritious. We guarantee our wine.

BUT…it has to be distinctive wine. Wine with full, rich flavor. Wine that makes food and friends better. Wine that brings dismay when you find the bottom. Wine that makes music in the glass, sings on the tongue to tell where it grew. Wine you can afford to drink. Wine made by Paradisos del Sol.

Paradisos is the Spanish derivative of pairidaēza, Persian پردیس (pardis) for a “walled enclosure,” from pairi “around” + diz “form, shape.” It originally comes from the Ancient Greek π (paradeisos “Persian garden”). It is a word that goes back to 5000 B.C. and refers to beautiful, irrigated gardens walled off from the desert. When I walk through a vineyard, I feel I am in a paradise.

We are a small family-owned winery that uses only grapes from our organic, pesticide-free Vineyard del Sol.

Paradisos del Sol is an expression of my soul. The winery is not named for me (even though I am plenty arrogant!), because it is more than just my sweat in a bottle of Paradisos Red. I have help tending the vines, lots of different sweat irrigates our paradise. My wife, Barbara Sherman, does all the paperwork, plenty of sweat there! She also helps run the tasting room with me. Even as early as 4, our son Kevin (now 27 and old enough to run our tasting room!) helped by pulling weeds, picking grapes, and putting bottles on the bottling line. Visit his Jellybean & Wine Charm Store when you come to see us (also seasonal cherries and melons). Kevin has now graduated (with honors) from Western Washington University and is looking for a gig as an actor. Does anyone need an actor? Or dramaturge? Or anything in the acting scene? He is really good (says his proud parents). We might be a tiny bit biased.

We are believers in letting the grapes become wine. We are Winegrowers, not Winemakers. Our job is to eat grapes and imagine what wine they wish to be—then provide the best conditions for the transformation into great wine. Sometimes, we use barrels (old, neutral barrels, never new), and sometimes tanks. Most often, a barrel is the cocoon where the juice transforms into a dry table wine. Sometimes, the wines yearn to be sweet and luscious, and a temperature-controlled tank is the cocoon. (But then Angelica is sweet, luscious, and barrel-fermented [it’s just complex]).