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Kukkula Wines
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Our Story

kukku­la (kook-koo-luh), Finnish for ​“the hill, or high place”

An Estate Root­ed in Conviction

kukku­la is a dry-farmed vine­yard and win­ery, farmed organ­i­cal­ly, in the Ade­lai­da Dis­trict of Paso Rob­les. Found­ed by Kevin and Paula Jus­si­la in 2006, the win­ery is devot­ed to estate-grown Rhône-vari­ety blends shaped by lime­stone soils, ele­va­tion, coastal influ­ence, and nat­ur­al acidity.

The name kukku­la means ​“the high place” in Finnish — a reflec­tion of her­itage and of the land itself.

From Curiosity to Commitment

I fell in love with wine in my mid-20s, drawn espe­cial­ly to the struc­ture, bal­ance, and savory depth of Rhône blends. In the ear­ly 1990s, I began mak­ing wine in the base­ment of our home in Topan­ga Canyon. What began as curios­i­ty slow­ly became conviction.

By the mid-1990s, we plant­ed our first 1.5 acres of vines. The process of farm­ing, fer­ment­ing, and wait­ing revealed some­thing deep­er than tech­nique. I began to under­stand the mean­ing of place.

In 2004, Paula and I pur­chased a wal­nut orchard high in the Ade­lai­da Dis­trict on the west side of Paso Rob­les. The land was rugged and lime­stone-rich, exposed to coastal influ­ence and marked by dra­mat­ic diur­nal shifts. It demand­ed dis­ci­pline and patience. It felt right.

We began devel­op­ing the vine­yard and win­ery in 2006, farm­ing with a long-term view and build­ing an estate that reflects restraint rather than excess.

Philosophy

kukku­la farms first and inter­venes min­i­mal­ly in the cel­lar. The goal is clar­i­ty — wines that express site rather than cellar.

Nat­ur­al acid­i­ty is pre­served through ele­va­tion, lime­stone soils, and dry farm­ing. Fer­men­ta­tions rely on native yeasts. Red wines are nei­ther fined nor fil­tered. Bal­ance, vivid fruit with restraint, tex­ture, and longevi­ty guide deci­sions in the cellar.

This is not wine­mak­ing for imme­di­a­cy. It is wine shaped by land, struc­ture, and time.

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The Team

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Kevin Jussila

Hav­ing no for­mal edu­ca­tion in wine­mak­ing, Kevin has made up for it by read­ing a lot of books, farm­ing, mak­ing (and cer­tain­ly con­sum­ing!) a lot of wine in the last thir­ty five years. He start­ed mak­ing wine in 1992 in the base­ment of the Topan­ga, Cal­i­for­nia home that he and Paula built in 1990.

In 1996, he plant­ed a half acre of Syrah on their Topan­ga prop­er­ty. With­in a year that was expand­ed to 1 1⁄2 acres and ulti­mate­ly, he start­ed a small bond­ed win­ery called Jus­si­la Vine­yard. A lot of buzz fol­lowed, and he fool­ish­ly start­ed dream­ing about get­ting far more serious.

In 2004, Paula, Kev­in’s bet­ter half and enabler, allowed him to pur­sue the dream. They moved the fam­i­ly to Paso Rob­les with the pur­chase of 80 acres on Chim­ney Rock Road in the Ade­lai­da area. Since mov­ing north they’ve built a home on the prop­er­ty, built the wine pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty and tast­ing room, plant­ed a vine­yard and olive orchard.

Kevin’s all-con­sum­ing pas­sion for this project is obvi­ous when you vis­it kukku­la. Many days you’ll find him in the tast­ing room, where you can wit­ness this passion.

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Paula Jussila

Paula (Schwab) Jus­si­la worked for 25 years in adver­tis­ing and mar­ket­ing in Los Ange­les before start­ing kukku­la with her hus­band (and wine­mak­er), Kevin Jus­si­la, in 2004. She pri­mar­i­ly helps out on the busi­ness side of the win­ery, focus­ing on mar­ket­ing, PR, event plan­ning, and over­all macro deci­sions for kukku­la. Beyond that, she is the chief errand offi­cer, in addi­tion to keep­ing track of the Jus­si­la kids. You can often find her in the tast­ing room on week­ends and dri­ving all over the Cen­tral Coast on the weekdays.

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Curren Du Beau/​Assistant Winemaker

I am born and raised in Thou­sand Oaks and attend­ed Cal Poly San Luis Obis­po, grad­u­at­ing with a degree in Envi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment and Pro­tec­tion. While attend­ing Cal Poly, I worked my first har­vest and right away knew it was some­thing I want­ed to pur­sue. I always have liked wine, but being part of the process of mak­ing it real­ly intrigued me and sparked my inter­est even more so. I worked a cou­ple har­vests at a win­ery in San Luis Obis­po, most­ly with fruit from the Edna Val­ley area. Want­i­ng a change of scenery, I stum­bled upon this won­der­ful team and prop­er­ty here at kukku­la. My pas­sion for wine­mak­ing has tru­ly grown here, cre­at­ing wines with Kevin, that show our sense of place in this ter­roir. When I am not at work I enjoy surf­ing, hiking/​camping, and hang­ing with friends, usu­al­ly drink­ing some good wine.