The Picchetti Winery, also known as the Picchetti Ranch, is a winery located at 13100 Montebello Rd., Cupertino, California in the Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve. The Picchetti brothers, Secondo and Vincenzo, for whom the ranch was named, were among the earliest settlers to plant

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s on this ridge, which they named "Monte Bello" or "beautiful mountain." This ridge was later to become one of

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

's important vineyard areas. The complex is composed of seven buildings built between 1880 and 1920, which retain their original design details. Vincenzo and Secondo Picchetti settled on Montebello ridge in 1877 and purchased an initial for $1,500. The ranch expanded to by 1904. The first house on the property was built around 1882, followed by a larger residence in 1886. Both homes, plus the stone winery, were in the Picchetti family until 1976. The first grapes planted were

Zinfandel Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštel ...

, Carignane and Petite Sirah. At first, the brothers only sold the grapes to local wineries, but in 1896 they decided to make their own wine, becoming one of the early wineries in California (California Bonded Winery number 148). Instrumental in establishing the

Montebello School Montebello may refer to: Places Australasia * Montebello Islands, Australia Europe * Montebello della Battaglia, Pavia, Italy * Montebello Vicentino, Vicenza, Italy * Montebello di Bertona, Abruzzo, Pescara, Italy * Montebello Ionico, Calabri ...

in 1892, Vincenzo served on the first school board and supplied a room for a teacher at his ranch. Vineyards were the life blood of the town of Cupertino's early economy, although grape parasites destroyed many of the vines in the region in the 1890s. Upon Vincenzo's death in 1904, sons Antone and John ran the winery and ranch. The front porch of the main house was once screened in and acted as an aviary. Later John had numerous aviaries built - one of those aviaries still stands in front of the homestead house. Commercial wine production ceased in 1963 due to a lack of profitability, and much of the land was sold to the

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...

. The Santa Clara County Historical Heritage Commission provided funding for the restoration of the winery building. The land produced wine from 1982 to 1998 as Sunrise Winery. In 1998, Leslie Pantling took over the winery and production has resumed to the tune of about 9,000 cases per year under the "Leslie's Estate" label. Today, the Picchetti ranch and winery on Montebello Road remain as evidence of a thriving

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

industry in early Cupertino.

Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve

The Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve was acquired by the

in 1976. The winery is leased back to a private party. The preserve is partially surrounded by

Stevens Creek County Park Stevens Creek Reservoir is an artificial lake located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains near Cupertino, California. A county park surrounds the reservoir and provides limited fishing ("catch and release"), picnicking, hiking, and hors ...

, and features of trails restricted to pedestrians and horses.

References

External links

Picchetti Brothers Winery
{{San Jose and Silicon Valley attractions Industrial buildings completed in 1880 Wineries in Santa Cruz Mountains Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, California Companies based in Cupertino, California Cupertino, California 1880 establishments in California