UVa alumna opens South Paddock Winery in Albemarle County [Video]

A big-city architect leaves her firm, sells her house, moves her family down south, buys a historic farm and transforms it into a bustling winery.

No, it’s not the plot a Hallmark movie; it’s the true story of Carmel Greer and South Paddock Winery.

Greer and her husband Dan Baum had lived in Washington, D.C., for years. It’s where Greer founded her architecture firm District Design, where Baum worked in public relations, where the couple raised their four children. But when the pandemic brought their busy lives to a screeching halt, the big city started to feel much smaller, more restrictive.

“We went from being happy to having huge ants in our pants,” Greer told The Daily Progress. “We were just restless.”

So on a family trip to Charlottesville, where Greer lived as a student at the University of Virginia, they began to shop for real estate. By late December …