Just ½ block off of Carmel Valley Road in the heart of the village lies a quaint little “Gothic cathedral” that is the tasting room home of Joullian Vineyards. This great little rock-walled structure provides the perfect invitation to venture past the inlaid wood doors and taste some of their good wine. The French provincial interior has a faux custom limestone tasting counter with dark woods, high beamed ceilings and a tile floor. There are wine accessories for sale along with wine books, napkins, logo clothing, and gourmet food items.

Joullian’s vineyard property was purchased in 1982. It originally consisted of 655 acres of hillside bench land at an elevation of 1,400 feet in the heart of the remote Carmel Valley viticulture appellation. Following extensive contouring and terracing, 40 acres of high-density-spaced vines were planted in the rocky Arroyo Seco Series loam. The planting emphasized Bordeaux varieties, allocating two-thirds of the vineyard to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon...as well as Carmel Valley’s first Zinfandel.

The winery, located in the remote upper Carmel Valley, was completed in the spring of 1991, and is designed to handle each vineyard block separately to ensure that the complex subtleties and nuances produced in the field are transferred intact to the bottle. All the wines produced at Joullian are made from estate grapes with the exception of their Chardonnay, which is sourced from vineyards in the nearby Santa Lucia Highlands and the Arroyo Seco appellations.