Step Inside This Dreamy Tuscan Villa in California

Welcome to La Tarantella by Grassini Family Vineyards. I'm Corinne Mathern from Corinne Mathern's studio and I can't wait to show you around this beautiful property. Before I show you the interiors I'd love to show you a little bit more of the exterior landscape. The landscape at La Tarantella is really what inspired the interiors. All of the materials, the gorgeous mauve plaster, all of the handmade terracotta pots, the iron qualities of all of the lighting, all of the landscaping and olive trees, oak trees, and vines are what brought the exterior to be so inspiring for the interior. Some of the parts of the exterior of the home that I love so much is the mauve plaster. It flows throughout the home. It creates the perfect backdrop to some of these beautiful plant materials that we brought in with landscape designer Arcadia Studios who's based here in Santa Barbara. We brought in gorgeous Italian terracotta pots to juxtapose against the handmade stone throughout the motor court. The sconces on the exterior of the home were salvaged from the Libero studio renovation and they were originally designed by Luda Maria Riggs. She's a well-known architect here in Santa Barbara. If you look from this area of the home and just take in the expansiveness of the entry, the mission style doors are so gorgeous and create such an amazing entry to the home. The cypress trees in the back are reminiscent of old world Italy as are all of the gorgeous olive trees, oak trees, and other plantings throughout the the home. So when you enter the property, you drive in through this gorgeous long driveway, all gravel-filled like old world Italy. You go through rosemary bushes, pass a beautiful limestone birdbath with birds chirping and sitting in having a beautiful day, and you enter this area that flows into the motor court and eventually into the entry of the home. This beautiful archway didn't need to necessarily be done in the home, but it creates such an incredible entry when you're coming in that feels really welcoming and just extremely special like the rest of the home that I can't wait to show you. So La Tarantella by Grissini Family Vineyards is a full-service wedding and event venue. Originally it was built as a private property for a family, so you have that feel throughout the home. When you walk in it feels like a family home and that's really what Grissini Family and La Tarantella want you to feel. They want you to feel welcome, they want you to feel at home, they want you to bring your friends, they want you to bring your family, they want you to know that you're welcome and that the beauty of the property is for you to take in. So if you look out through the field here, you'll see olives planted in the background, you'll see a beautiful space here around an oak tree and additional plantings throughout. These are all areas that are open for weddings, corporate events, etc. I'll show you some more of the grounds a little bit later, but let's go check out the inside. So this is the courtyard for the home. It houses beautiful saltillo tile that were imported from Mexico and access to each one of the rooms. So we have a couple of bedrooms, we have a suite where brides and grooms are able to get ready for their wedding, there's a primary bedroom to the side which is often used as a space for brides to get ready with all of their friends, and then the living room and the dining room are really the heart of the home. This is oftentimes where parties are thrown, so they'll have large events here where the entire space is activated, have bars and drinks and food and everything, and it really becomes alive. So La Tarantella was built to be an active space. It's really a space where everybody can bring their friends and family and have a beautiful party in the heart of San Yanez Valley. So as you're in the courtyard, there's so many gorgeous views, whether you're looking out to the front of the home, onto the tops of the mountains where they've planted some vines beyond, more oak trees, beautiful hawks and wildlife in the background, to this this side of the property where you see the cypress peeking up and giving glimpses of that old world Italy feeling that is so prevalent through the home. So the San Yanez Valley is really known now as wine country. Previously it wasn't, and now after about 20 years of wine being developed here, it's really a destination point. La Tarantella has this beautiful courtyard that when you walk in it feels very private, elegant and calm. This space makes you feel really at home. From the exterior coziness, you walk into this beautiful living room with the volumes that you can't even imagine built of these incredible beams. Everything in the home is natural material, so we really brought the exterior to the interior. Salty oak tiles, clay, wood, metal, the plaster, all of those materials really come wrapping to the inside so it feels like it's one and the same. The living room is one of my favorite spots. So everything in the home was designed in five months. They had a wedding booked and we had to book it, so anything that you see was either custom or vintage for the most part. This is an oak table that we custom designed for the home. This is a beautiful vessel from one of my favorite shops in Los Angeles, J.F. Chen. This is Beverly Morrison. Beautiful vessel that doesn't need any sort of flower or anything in it. It just stands alone as a beautiful piece. This fireplace was original to the home. This is sort of how they built the home. They pulled in all of these incredible elements that they sourced from different areas of Italy and France and Spain, and that's what they built the home around. So this fireplace is hundreds of years old. When placed in this home, it gives that depth to the home that makes it feel like it was built a hundred years ago as well. When we furnished this space, we wanted to do the same, so a lot of what we brought in were pieces that were reclaimed. These tabarka tile tables, these are all custom, both of these. These were reclaimed from the owner's home. It was originally a kitchen backsplash. We put them in the home flooded, so they had to demolish them. So we took them and we placed them into these beautiful oak tile tables. All of the sofas are custom made for the home, the rugs, etc. Any of these pieces that you see, these really special chairs, these were all imported as well. So the beautiful dough fur on the ceiling, married with the beautiful limestone of the fireplace, are some of the materials that inspired the entire home. Throughout the home, you'll see those materials repeated, whether it's through the interiors, brought into the exteriors. Anywhere you look, there's beautiful wood and patinaed stone. The second part of the living room is a place to sit and just have a nice glass of wine and interact with a couple of people, pick up a book, enjoy your space here. So we have a piano here for somebody to sit down and just enjoy their time and play. I wish I could play for you. I know maybe a couple songs you'd be embarrassed for me to play, but it's a beautiful space to enjoy a glass of wine with friends and family. So now that I've shown you the living room, I'd love to show you the dining room. So we come through these beautiful walnut columns. These were also brought in from France, I believe their 18th century. The detail on them is incredible. The stone base, hand chiseled, and the wood carved tops are beautiful. That really inspired these pieces here. So this is a 15 foot long oak custom table done for this space. We brought in Goran Momvill. He's a Swedish designer. Chairs. I think these are so gorgeous and sculptural. This whole table is a space for 12 people to come sit, hang out with friends and family, enjoy the space, have a glass of wine by the fire. And then we have this incredible wolf stove where chefs come in and perform and have an incredible meal cooked for our guests right here. Next to the stove is solid blocks of limestone, integrated limestone sinks, new oak cabinetry with beautiful knobs, and just a really lovely addition to the dining space. One of my favorite aspects of the home are the ceilings. The ceilings are incredible Doug Fir beams. All of them were purchased for $1. The original contractor demoed a building in San Francisco and in order to get the the beams he said he would do it for a dollar and they would give him all of the beams. The demo was extensive which is why he only charged them a dollar because he wanted these incredible beams. So you can see them throughout the dining room here and then through the living room as well. I can't wait to show you the lounge where the beam system is even more incredible. The way that the fireplaces work in every room I think has been done really beautifully. The massiveness of this fireplace has to be juxtaposed with a ceiling volume like this and a ceiling treatment like this. Without the two together this room wouldn't be as magnificent. So I think the architect did a really beautiful job here. We brought in these beautiful cozy chairs, a couple of antique vessels. These are Mexican tables and antiques and throughout the dining room other antiques and books and some collected from the family's heirlooms. Adjacent to the living room and dining room is one of my favorite rooms and it happens to be a bathroom. It's a powder room that we bathed in a Benjamin Moore light green. We did this insane custom sink which is my favorite piece in the whole home. It's a solid block of limestone. We've paired it with Waterworks faucets and then just a couple of other accessories. The mirror is vintage. The light is one of my favorite rose uniaque lights. I love the draperies in here. This room is a room that I would love to spend a lot of time in. It's just one of my favorite rooms. So beyond the living room is another one of my favorite rooms is this is what we call the lounge. This is where we end the night with a glass of cabernet sauvignon or a glass of scotch. I like my neat no ice. The ceilings in here are so inspiring. Again similar to the living room and dining room the ceilings are what really makes the space. The geometry of how they figured this out is beyond me. How the original architects drew this out and planned it but I just think it's such a stunning part of the space. This is actually a tower that is above which I'll show you in a little while. We swathed this entire room in dark blue Benjamin Moore. We wanted it to be sort of like a moody spot that you ended the night with. We brought in more vintage as I noted before and we created a lot of custom items through the the space. The sofa is one of my favorite designers. French designers from the 1960s we paired their sofa recovered with a gorgeous tile table one of my favorite pieces to design. These are all new terracotta tiles and then cased in a in an iron leg. These also are vintage chairs that we brought in and I think the backdrop of another one of these incredible limestone fireplaces is just gorgeous. The scale of this fireplace is perfect for the room. The ceilings really dictate the power of the room and then this fireplace is just like a little bit of a quiet quiet design choice. It feels like very understated and just the perfect balance in the room. This here is the bar so Grissini Family Vineyards is Bordeaux style wine. These are a couple of their Cabernet Sauvignons that I love having in this dark blue moody end of the night space. This is where they do all of their tastings if you have a private event here or if you have a wedding they will bring you here and you can taste through all of their all of their gorgeous wines and every room in the the house has a gorgeous view so throughout here we see the exterior vineyards throughout the back space we see all of the gorgeous rosemary and beyond to the Grissini Family Vineyards. This space is an extension of the lounge this is what we call the tower. Why I love this space so much is because it gives you a completely different view of the entire property you get to get up all the way up into the clouds and see the entire vineyard from this viewpoint. The space has a sweet little sitting area where you can take a minute it also has a little desk where you can be inspired and pick up a book but my favorite spot is this moment here where you can stand out and look over the entire vineyard. So now that I've shown you most of the interiors we still have the primary left but I couldn't wait to show you the exterior. One of the most beautiful parts of it is this gorgeous pool overlooking the vineyards. The vineyards just had bud break a couple weeks ago so you get to see how beautiful they become in a couple of months it'll just be blooming the vines will be full and gorgeous but for now just a little bit of bud break getting ready to sprout. So heated pool in the back big cocktail parties back here I've been to weddings back here with hundreds of people and it's just an incredible spot. I've never seen anybody fall in the pool yet I'm sure it will happen knock on wood one of these days but so far so far so good. So the grounds have this meandering path all throughout so anywhere you go there's always sort of a beautiful pathway to another gorgeous spot to land. So here we have the the pool we have a couple of vintage sets that we brought in and a couple of chais to lounge by the pool. This is another beautiful view of the home from here what you see is the back of the home so behind you are the incredible vineyards and the incredible oak trees and olive trees. What I love about this view is that you get the pink plaster the mauve plaster throughout the traditional shutters paired with the iron sconces throughout the home are such a beautiful visual from from here there's nothing like it in the wine country in San Yanez. So the home has this real playfulness to it I think that comes from the mauve plaster and also the name La Tarantella. It feels elegant it feels inviting but it has such a fun name and a fun vibe to it. So now I'm going to show you where most of the event spaces are all throughout the exterior but the bonus is a private entry to the primary bedroom. So this is the beautiful tower the view that we were looking out over the vineyards to the figaro mountains here so after we followed the pathway from the pool this is the private entry to the primary. There's a couple of entries there you can come in through the courtyard all of the bedrooms are accessible from the courtyard you can come in through another space in the house or you can come in which is my favorite way to enter through this area here. So this is a private courtyard for the primary it just has a little nice little seating arrangement for to have a little glass of wine at the end of the night. It has a couple of chaises in case you want to lounge a little bit or you can just enter this beautiful beautiful room. I want to show you some of my favorite parts of the the primary. Again another gorgeous limestone fireplace hearth and surround. This again the scale of this room the ceiling treatment is similar to the dining room but this scale is smaller so the ceilings are a little smaller it's a little bit more of a cozy room than the dining room. It's a little bit more closed in it feels really private and romantic. We brought in as a homage to the Bordeaux wines we brought in some art from a Bordeaux artist Ash Design she custom made all of these plates for us that we mounted above this beautiful limestone fireplace. A couple of custom beautiful Ezio chairs from our collection and a custom center table as well. We needed to make sure that we kept the height of the room and maximized it without bringing in a bed that couldn't withstand the height of the room so we custom we had this bed custom made. I think it works really beautifully. So the primary bedroom has a couple of beautiful bathrooms off the side. I'd love to show you this space one of the most elegant spaces if a bathroom can be elegant in the entire property. We brought in this gorgeous Italian Cipollino stone throughout the vanity throughout the bathtub deck and the entire shower is clad in this stone. Every single detail in it is like a piece of art when you look at all of the little details of the the stone you can really see different pieces of art in them it really is a masterpiece. Throughout the tub deck with all of our water monopoly fittings we brought in the same stone and some sculptural plants. So shower I think this space is so stunning. My favorite brand of bath soap shampoo and conditioner is Aesop. Absolute favorite. We bring them into almost every project we do with Henry Wilson fittings. Again the stone tells this incredible story throughout every little bit of it talks about how incredible nature is. This is the room parallel to the primary bathroom. It's what we call the dressing room. A lot of guests come in here and this is where they get ready for the day whether it's an event they're going out to taste wine in the beautiful San Iones Valley go to a restaurant etc this is where they they get ready. So we've we've designed this to be just a really beautiful space to land again that gorgeous stone with all of the the incredible pieces of it Cipollini Italian stone and beautiful kind of fun there's like that that nod to playful Italian. This we brought in is a Brutalist vintage mirror paired with rose oniac sconces and I think this was a very successful room the way that it plays out. So across from the primary bedroom we have this other beautiful suite. This room is a landing spot for guests. It's oftentimes used as the groom's suite they come in they have a glass of wine they sit they hang out while everybody else is getting ready. My favorite part of this room is probably this piece of millwork often this is stocked with beer wine etc obsidian quartzite that we brought in we leathered this stone I love the feeling of leathered stone it just has such a natural feel it takes a beautiful patina and it just over time it ages in the way that a home like this should. We brought in antiques and heirlooms from the family so there's a story that is told throughout the the space. These are a couple of spindle stools that we got at one of my favorite antique shops in Los Angeles paired with a vintage french limestone garden stool very playful again that idea of playfulness throughout the home is something that I love and this garden stool is the same material as this limestone hearth it just has a completely different look so again how many fireplaces is that we have I think five fireplaces throughout the home often on a cold day like today ended up being I think the sun's gonna break out we have these fireplaces roaring and it just creates such an incredible feel throughout the house you get the smell of the wood burning fireplaces the smoke and it smells so incredible and it also just gives a really cozy feeling throughout the house. So here we're exiting the chef's kitchen it's connected to the backyard where the pool is etc I'm going to show you down this meandering path to one of my favorite spots on the property happens to be a really gorgeous sculptural oak tree that I've been to weddings where the bride and groom land under for their ceremony and it's just a really beautiful spot come with me the landscaping throughout was done by Arcadia Studio they're a landscaper in Santa Barbara that we work with often the reason I love their work is what they did here is they picked only a handful and they used them in abundance so it creates this really beautiful sculptural feel throughout the property where we have your rosemary and we have a lot of rosemary so it feels like a sculpture we have lavender we have a lot of lavender so it feels like a sculptural aspect they created all of these gorgeous gravel paths and dirt paths every piece of grass that they specified and brought into the property was made to show movement in the landscape because it's so still out here one of the beauties of it is when there's a little bit of wind there's a little bit of a breeze you can feel it but you can also see it and I think that that creates a very artful space is when you see the wind and you can feel it come over here to see one of my favorite oak trees on the planet the San Yanez Valley is known for these incredible hundred-year-old oaks they've been here since before we were and they a lot of them just have incredible sculptural aspects to them so to me this is really what inspired the entire home it's a piece of art in that it's nature and it's an incredible specimen this here is where I went to my first wedding on the property I'm standing right here and the peace that you can feel from this tree it sort of envelops you is really incredible so we also have an adjacent guest house on the property we're converting the guest house to a two-bedroom that's going to be available for vacation rental which is very exciting to be able to stay on this property and experience the property from day to night is going to be a spiritual experience in front of the guest house we planted some vines these vines just broke little bud break here you can see throughout the property I'd love to show you the rest of the vineyard at Grassini family vineyards and so let's head over there so we're going to go over to Grassini family vineyards the the property was purchased in the 90s it wasn't developed into land for wine until the early 2000s and they never thought that they were going to develop it as a winery or a vineyard they always thought that it was just going to be land that they would eventually develop and live on it turned into a very happy decision for the family so 20 years ago they planted and they're 25 years ago I believe they planted and then since then the first bottling was for the family's grandma I believe her 80th birthday and the wine was amazing everybody had the best time they had a really fun time and from there that sort of decided the kind of the idea of the brand it was all family and it was all enjoying time together and having fun and and being together so now Grassini family vineyards is all estate grown so everything that you taste from the vineyard is grown on the vineyard and it's bottled on the vineyard all of the water that they get for the vineyard is from the wells on the vineyard property and the La Tarantella property so everything is on property nothing none of the water is brought in they have Cabernet Sauvignon they have Sauvignon Blanc they have Merlot Petit Verdot all really beautiful styles of wine to the left this is what's so beautiful about San Yanez horses cows goats all you can imagine the vineyard is about 200 acres not all of it's planted those are all Grassini family vineyards vines they have some vines planted at the top of the the property there as well but as we drive into Grassini family vineyards you'll see how beautiful and bucolic that property as well now we're entering Grassini family vineyards members come they do tastings little rowboats sometimes they take out sort of very sweet this property was developed first so the winery building up here was all built all of reclaimed wood and that was built a couple years after the vineyard was established and and then the rest of the vines were planted and this is another one of those sculptural oak trees that's so beautiful oh good you're getting married wonderful very nice oh geez the real beauty hi how are you his his his favorite daughter his favorite child oh my gosh buddy buddy come here oh good as the sun sort of peeks out I wanted to show you this sweet little moment this is the pond for La Tarantella and Grassini family vineyards little rowboat here to have a romantic little trip in it and they have fish here oftentimes you'll catch some of the family members fishing but it's just a really beautiful calm space that connects the two spaces thank you so much for coming on this tour with me today of La Tarantella and Grassini family vineyards I so enjoyed it I hope you enjoyed the beautiful properties if you'd like to reach out to me in my studio I would love that my website is you can reach out there and make sure to follow the luxury home show on youtube because we'll have more tours for you in the future thank you have a great day