SHOKRIAN VINEYARDS

Shokrian Vineyards, formerly known as Verna's in Santa Barbara County, is the brainchild of Babak Shokrian where one might know from the film industry and festival circuit. Born in Teheran, Iran, Babak moved with his family to the United States at an early age, got a degree in anthropology from UCLA, and began to work in film.

In 2013, after briefly visiting Los Alamos to celebrate a friend's birthday, Babak was looking for a change and began to fantasize about buying a house with property to grow grapes. Several months later, as fate would have it, a property right across the street from where he had visited those few months prior had fallen out of escrow. Babak immediately seized the opportunity and purchased the 100 acres of land and went right to work.

Babak began by finding winemakers willing to take a chance on his project. Morgan Clendenen of Cold Heaven Cellars was intrigued and took a leap of faith by coming on board as Shokrian's 1st winemaker. The two then met up with Drake Whitcraft of Whitcraft Winery who also joined the winemaking team.

Currently, you can find Babak residing on the property with his dog Cocoa and a handful of goats, sheep, horses and chickens.