RANCHO PARRALITO VINEYARD
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Parralito means "Little Vine" in Spanish, so it seemed almost preordained that Rancho Parralito was destined to become one of the first working vineyards in Los Cabos. When the owners of the ranch, Wendy Rudell & Charles Free, found a very thick old vine growing over the arbor of the original ranch house in 1996, they started investigating its history & origin. The vine, 25 inches diameter, was anything but small, and after some research it was discovered to have originated from 400 year old Missionary stock that the original Jesuits preists had brought to Baja from Spain to make sacrament wine in their efforts to establish missions and tame the hostile Pericu indians.
A Vineyard is Born
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This original Missionary vine became the first stock that Wendy & Charlie experimented with, and with a little help from some local wine experts, were able to produce their first batch of Rancho Parralito wine. After their first trial run with the original grape stock, Wendy and Charlie also began planting traditional grape stock varieties, such as cabernet, sauvignon, merlot, zinfandel, grenache, cab franc and more. They also began experimenting with grafting grape stock, and were able to successfully graft several varieties of standard grape to the original Missionary vine stock and made a wine blended from the crossbred grapes. Although their initial efforts resulted in a well received blend of locally made wines, they knew they still needed help from from the experts if they were going to succeed to the next level.
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WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS
To their good fortune, Roy Stock of the Distillery and Harold Osborn of the La Fuente winery in Todos Santos came to their rescue. They contributed their state of the art knowledge, wine making technology & experience, and also introduced them to Jeff Newton, a professional vineyard consultant from California. As a result of their valuable input 6 assistance, Wendy and Charlie were able to grow some refined varieties of red grape that they successfully blended with stock from the original grapevine. Ever since, a wonderful champagne style rose is grafted and enjoyed by guests of the ranch. Family and friends, all joined together to enjoy the summery breeze under the shades of the trees and the rustic and picturesque bungalows around the vineyard.
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EXPANSION OF VINEYARD AND RANCH TOURS
A result of their highly successful 2017 wine season, an expansion of the vineyard began and continues. Each year, their annual harvest
RANCHO PARRALITO VINEYARD GALLERY
