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 You may not come across any winemakers wearing felt fedoras or carrying bullwhips, but adventurers they are, nonetheless. Take Jennifer Soni, owner of Lions Peak Vineyards. With an 18-year career as an interior designer, she had found success and garnered numerous awards as a designer in her native Texas. But a chance encounter with the Central Coast convinced her to toss it all and take up a new career. “I think part of it, probably, was insanity!” she says with a smile. “I had a young daughter and I was stressed out with working so many hours in the design world. Somehow the vineyard was kind of romantic.”
The romance wore off quickly, though, as the enormity of what she had done became clear. “I think people think fantasize about having a vineyard and growing the grapes, but what they don’t realize is that it’s agriculture,” she says.
Fortunately, Soni has a background in agriculture. Her family has farmed hundreds of acres in Texas for generations. “I remember that as a child,” she adds. “So I think I was able to transform from being in Ann Klein suits to being out in knee high boots and working on busted drip lines.”
Soni has been hands on with all aspects of her business. “Sometimes you wear a lot of different hats and sometimes you’re just down and dirty and I had to be willing to do that and I was,” she explains. She has designed the labels, run the tasting room, taken charge of sales and marketing, and made wine with the help of a consultant. “That’s why I’m here today,” she says. “It’s perseverance. I would go out in the vineyard in the truck and honk the horn to get the birds out. I know it sounds crazy. But you do what you have to do if you want to succeed.”
And she has succeeded in this venture, but it hasn’t been without setbacks. When she originally purchased the vineyard in 1992, she opened a tasting room in downtown Paso Robles. The earthquake in 2003 changed everything. “People didn’t want to come downtown anymore,” she says. “It was very nerve wracking.
 At first I was reluctant to move the tasting room down here, outside of our appellation. But I stepped out in faith and did it and it ended up being the best thing I could have ever done.”
She recently expanded her business to include Lions Peak Global Wine Shop in Cambria where she sells boutique wine producers from California and around the world as well as all of Lions Peak’s wine. As her business grows, Soni is also making time to volunteer for causes close to her heart.
“As a victim of domestic violence I understand it on a first hand basis,” she explains. “I just think that at this point in my life I want to give back. I believe that I’ve been blessed with this business and I want to use my life and my business to help.”
Lions Peak focused primarily on Bordeaux reds in the beginning. These days their award-winning lineup includes a variety of reds, Rhônes, ports and dessert wines. The Solvang tasting room is open 7 days a week: Sunday–Thursday, 11am to 5pm, Friday and Saturday, 11am to 7pm.
Now, if you’re looking to have your own adventure in wine country, you should step inside a cave. Historically used to keep wines cool and let them age gently, wine caves have come a long way from the rugged catacombs the Romans used to store their liquid treasures.
Currently, the only winery in Santa Barbara County with wine caves open to the public is Cottonwood Canyon.
If you visit on Saturdays and Sundays you can pay $15 and join a tour at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. or 3 p.m.
The tour takes 45 minutes to an hour and the fee includes your regular wine tasting as well as barrel sampling while you’re in the cave. The cave entrance is about a ¼ mile walk from the tasting room, down a steep slope. They can make special arrangements if you are in a wheelchair or need extra assistance.
Here’s to adventurous tastings. Cheers!
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