In 1781, Josef Ontiveros rode from Mexico to Alta California to stay. Josef would become the first in a line of nine generations of California ranchers and farmers, with James Ontiveros as the ninth. Today, James is still in the same valley that generations of his family have called home.
The wines of Native9 and Rancho Viñedo, together forming Ranchos de Ontiveros, tell a real story about the durability of truth, the people, and the earth itself. This very earth, farmed by us, is where these wines come from.
Through the struggle of the vines to reach for water and nutrients in the depleted earth, combined with the cool Mediterranean climate of the Santa Maria Valley, topped off with a little luck, Ranchos de Ontiveros makes wine as complex as the the story of how they came to be.