The Villa Among the Vines
LA TARANTELLA adds old-world glamour to the wine country
The approach to La Tarantella and a French limestone birdbath that provides just a preview of the treasures that inhabit The Villa.
Written by Anna Ferguson-Sparks
Photographs by Nicole Franzen
Once upon a time, a globe-trotting entertainment attorney fell in love with the Santa Ynez Valley. He and his wife decided to construct a dream home, La Tarantella, in what is now the Happy Canyon AVA of Santa Barbara County.
Grassini Family Vineyards’ Happy Canyon vines hug La Tarantella, which boasts bucolic vistas.
The couple, who had a passion for travel, filled their 6,000-square-foot manse with historic treasures collected on their worldly adventures, including an early 18th-century limestone fireplace from a French château, meticulously reconstructed on-site. The showpiece hearth was followed by a second imported limestone fireplace. To frame the entrance to the living room, the couple added walnut columns from a 19th-century French crypt, complete with their original, intricately carved stone bases. That same room received cedar beams for the ceiling, hand-assembled 21 feet above the ground by a local building crew. Douglas fir and cedar beams also graced the ceiling of the lounge, which is paved with the Mexican Saltillo floor tiles that are underfoot throughout La Tarantella.
The home’s construction was completed and celebrated in the early 1990s, with the help of famous family friends like Frank Ostini of Hitching Post 2, who purportedly rotisseried meats in the kitchen’s cavernous fireplace.
“The Villa blends beautifully with the Family’s own European heritage and love of entertaining.”
Over the next two decades, the adjacent property was acquired by the Grassini family, who opened a winery at Grassini Family Vineyards in 2010. The Grassinis befriended their neighbors, whose Mediterranean-style villa sat in the midst of the new vineyards. In time, the owners of La Tarantella and their residence began to show signs of graceful aging. The Grassini family stepped in to preserve the property and carry it forward.
In early 2022 the Grassini family acquired La Tarantella and immediately set to work breathing new life into all the glorious elements that make the property unique. They opted to keep the estate private, renting it only for select events. The deadline for the first of those was already looming when the Grassinis enlisted Santa Barbara–based designer Corinne Mathern, who worked with a variety of local artisans and tradespeople to restore the interior and exterior spaces of the stately residence, which they called The Villa.
The grand entrance to The Villa’s inner Fountain Courtyard.
With only five months until a high-profile wedding took place, the design team rearranged some of the venerable furnishings and introduced several elegant new pieces. The living room’s grand piano, which had a wooden frame that had been gorgeously burnished by decades of sunlight, was joined by a new coffee table, situated in front of the centuries-old fireplace that’s now topped with hand-painted tiles reclaimed from the elder Grassini’s Montecito home. Olive trees, uprooted from other spots on the property, were replanted along the pool lawn.
With the opening of La Tarantella in the fall of 2022, Grassini Family Vineyards, now encompassing 104 acres, was ready to serve as an ornate-yet-blank canvas for private events.
The Villa’s living room, with an early 18th-century limestone fireplace from a French château nestled below hand-assembled cedar trusses above the original Mexican Saltillo-tiled floor.
“The focal point of La Tarantella is the main house, which has stood for over three decades.”
The focal point of La Tarantella is still the main house, which has stood for more than three decades on the property, encircled by Grassini vineyards. With its original mix of Italian, French, and Spanish architectural elements, The Villa blends beautifully with the Grassini family’s own European heritage and love of entertaining.
La Tarantella’s six different outdoor event spaces accommodate as many as 250 guests. The Meadow, centered on a 300-year-old oak tree, sits near the Vineyard Oak Courtyard, a well-manicured grassy area shaded by two ancient oaks. The Poolside Lawn boasts views of Sauvignon Blanc vines, which extend 15 acres into the distance—and, as the name suggests, lead onto a vibrant green lawn and an inviting plunge pool. Another Saltillo-tile-lined patio leads into the house through three sets of French doors.
Olive and cypress trees line the entrance to The Villa, leading to The Piazza, an outer courtyard lush with foliage. Mission wood doors open to an inner Fountain Courtyard, similarly paved with sunset-hued Saltillo tiles, a trickling fountain at its center. The Olive Grove setting is distinguished by its namesake olive trees and dotted with oaks.
A restored tapestry of unknown origins befits the scene in one of The Villa’s previous bedroom suites, now used as a VIP wine-tasting area.
An additional rental fee grants use of The Villa’s interior, which features a chef’s exhibition kitchen. Two refurbished bedrooms and bathrooms are also available for bridal preparations, and a third bedroom suite has been transformed into a VIP wine-tasting area with a fully restored wall tapestry that depicts the gracious hospitality at La Tarantella.
Above the lounge, a spiral staircase leads to a custom-fitted library that rewards visitors with 180-degree views of the vineyards and the valley that attracted the home’s original owners.
