Wine Doctor
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
A chance encounter with wine changed Steve Ruths' life. Today, the psychiatrist behind Malibu Wine Company is helping put the Malibu Coast AVA on the map.
By Maddy Sims
Photography Silas Fallstich
The 101 cuts through Southern California in a blur of concrete and cars. Just outside of Thousand Oaks, an unassuming exit climbs west into the mountains. The noise disappears first. Asphalt gives way to dry hills, and the world starts to feel more exposed—the sun pressing harder and terrain pulling upward. A narrow road leads to rows of green vines, saturated in gold from the late afternoon sunshine. Mountains tower in the distance. A sprawling yellow house with a red tile roof sits beside a turquoise pool, right next to the vines.
This isn't Napa. It isn't even Santa Barbara. It's the lesser-known Malibu Coast AVA, where psychiatrist Steve Ruths spends his time crafting Rhône-style wines.
Ruths didn't set out to become a winemaker. During a break from medical school, he returned home to Florida to do research at the University of Miami before moving to Miami Beach. It was there that he picked up work bartending and eventually became a wine steward. It changed his life. "There were a couple of wines that opened my eyes," he says. "I finally understood why people were so obsessed with wine."
Medicine eventually called him back. While completing his fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, Ruths began studying viticulture and enology alongside psychiatry, earning his UC Davis Winemaking Certificate in 2008. Today, he serves as Medical Director of Sanctuary Centers of Santa Barbara.
Ruths is exactly how you'd imagine a psychiatrist: analytical, practical and meticulous. Every decision has a reason behind it, from choosing this particular property because it could support Rhône varietals to obsessing over blends until they taste exactly as he envisions them. Yet there's an unmistakable California ease beneath the precision. A silver chain peeks out beneath his checkered button-down. Classic rock plays in the background. His sun-bleached blond hair falls across the top of his glasses as he pours another taste and shrugs, "I dig it."
In many ways, the wines of Malibu Wine Company are extensions of Ruths himself. His fascination has always been Rhône varietals, and the Malibu Coast's warm days, cool evenings and rugged terrain offered the kind of site he had been searching for since initially developing a passion for wine. Even the names reveal something personal. Each wine is named after a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland where he skied with his father in 1985.
The Jungfrau is the most feminine of the three. German for maiden or virgin, The Jungfrau is built around Grenache, with Petite Sirah and Syrah adding structure and complexity. The result is bright and graceful, carrying more weight than you’d expect without ever feeling heavy. "My winemaker and I like to describe our wines as bold yet elegant," Ruths says.
The vineyard itself plays an important role in that balance. "There's a French term called garrigue," Ruths explains. "It's mostly used in southern France, where you have wild vegetation growing around the vineyards—sage, thyme, lavender, all that native chaparral. The aromatic oils from those plants volatilize in the heat and end up on the grape skins, adding another layer of complexity."
In the Malibu Coast AVA, the surrounding landscape leaves its own signature. California pepper trees line the property, imparting the peppercorn character that runs through several of the wines. "I first noticed this kind of influence in southern Rhône wines, and I'd also found a eucalyptus character in Australian Shiraz," Ruths notes. "I assumed leaves were falling into the picking bins, but that's not what's happening. The eucalyptus leaves produce oils that volatilize in the heat and eventually collect on the grape skins. That's what happens here with the pepper. That's our garrigue."
At the other end of the spectrum is The Eiger. Named after the mountain whose name translates to "ogre" or "monster," it's built around Petite Sirah. "The biggest monster of a grape we grow is the Petite Sirah," Ruths says. The Eiger is a wine with remarkable depth and power without ever becoming exhausting to drink. It's rich and structured, but surprisingly approachable—even for someone who instinctively reaches for white wine.
Stylistically, The Monk, based on Syrah, lands comfortably in the middle. Named after the mountain that sits between The Jungfrau and The Eiger, it centers on Syrah. "The Monk is the mountain in the middle that separates the monster, or with some liberty, dirty old man, from the maiden," Ruths jokes. "The most noble grape that we grow is Syrah, so that's The Monk."
For all the time Ruths dedicates to the vineyard, it isn't his full-time job. Every Tuesday, he's back in Santa Barbara, where he serves as Medical Director of Sanctuary Centers and also focuses on forensic psychiatry. It's demanding work that requires equal parts objectivity and empathy. Ruths speaks about it plainly, focusing instead on the practical realities of mental healthcare. "A lot of people either don't have resources themselves, or they aren't even aware of the fact that someone in their family needs help with mental health," he says. "The biggest thing is just awareness. And there are resources out there. There aren't enough, but they're out there. That's what I wish more people understood."
The connection between psychiatry and winemaking isn't immediately obvious. But after an afternoon with Ruths, it starts to reveal itself. Both fields are rooted in careful observation. Both reward patience. And both belong to someone who seems endlessly interested in understanding why things are the way they are. Wine may be Ruths's passion project, but he approaches it with the same discipline that defines his medical career. His mission is to raise the bar in the Malibu Coast and produce world class Rhône-style wines. And he’s doing just that—The 2024 Jungfrau recently received the highest score ever by Wine Spectator for a Malibu Coast wine.
Driving back toward the 101 later that afternoon, the vineyard disappears as quickly as it appeared. Traffic returns. Concrete replaces the wide-open hills. It's easy to understand why the Malibu Coast AVA has remained overlooked for so long. But places like this rarely stay hidden forever. Ruths has built something that feels entirely its own: a collection of Rhône-style wines shaped as much by the landscape as by the psychiatrist who couldn't stop thinking about them.
While Malibu Wine Company does not have a tasting room, private tastings at the vineyard can be arranged by contacting Dr. Ruths through the website.
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