John Parducci
History | Winery | Team | Vineyard Partners
As one of the pioneers of California’s Wine Industry, the Parducci family has been devoted to handcrafting premium Mendocino County wines for over 70 years. We source only the finest grapes from dedicated growers and strive to enhance what nature has provided and produce wines of distinction.
Winemaker Rich Parducci leads a small dedicated group of wine lovers. Our dedication to excellence builds on his family’s four generations of experience and expertise.
Our History
Young McNab dog. Photo by Randi Fredricks.
Mendocino County’s first vineyards were planted during the American Civil War by immigrants seeking to carve out new lives in this fertile land of northern California. McNab Valley is named after the Scottish immigrant and American soldier Alexander McNab who raised sheep on a 10,000-acre land grant in 1866. He became well known locally for the skill of his herding dogs, Peter and Fred, who would become patriarchs of the McNab dog breed, still a beloved working breed in the Pacific Northwest and Mendocino County in particular.
Our Fred’s Red wine produced under the Fun Bunch is named in honor of one of these great dogs, Fred, and features a McNab on the label. The McNab Valley has been parceled out since the 1970s and McNab Ridge is one of three wineries that sit along McNab Creek as it runs apace McNab Ranch Road.
Rich Parducci’s great grandfather, Adolph Parducci, arrived in the United States in 1912 and sold grapes from California via train to home winemakers across the country during Prohibition. During that time, his son John Parducci was growing up in the winery and learning the art of winemaking from his father… 200 legal gallons at a time, of course!
John continued making wine at his family’s winery and growing the business until the late 1980s. He purchased the McNab Ridge Winery in 1999 to continue his passion for making classic Mendocino County varietal wines. John knew the McNab Valley area well, having grown up hunting deer, turkey and wild boar on the ridges and valleys around the McNab Ranch.
Rich Parducci. Photo by Jan Petrey.
John’s grandson Rich Parducci grew up in the Mendocino County wine industry like his grandfather and studied enology at California State University Fresno, a school renowned for its winemaking program. He joined John at McNab Ridge following the 1999 harvest where they continued making wine together until John’s passing in 2014. With grapes from vineyards all over the county grown by our neighbors and dear friends, McNab Ridge Winery now combines the pioneering winemaking spirit of Mendocino County with the dedication and vitality of Rich Parducci.
Rich continues to make wine in the style made famous by his grandfather, John: complex, approachable, and enjoyable to drink. “We make wines that make you want more,” says Rich. Winery production in 2021 was 22,000 9-liter cases.
Our Winery
Rich at the winery. Photo by Lark Coryell.
Our winery is not open to the public.
Once known as the McNab Ranch, the property was originally homesteaded in 1868, by Alexander McNab, a Scottish immigrant. The original property consisted of thousands of acres of land, including the McNab Valley where our winery now stands. Nestled at the back of the valley, McNab Ridge is surrounded by some of the finest vineyards in Mendocino County.
The McNab Valley, in which the winery is situated, was settled in 1868 by the sheep rancher and Scottish immigrant Alexander McNab. To manage his flocks, in 1885 he imported two male “fox collies” from an original neighbor and bred a distinctive dog variety that, not surprisingly, became known as McNab; his son John imported others from the same area in the early 1900s. One legend is Alexander crossed the original males with Spanish females imported by the Basque sheep herders to obtain a shorter haired dog more resistant to California heat. Whatever their origins, McNabs are now treasured by farmers and ranchers throughout California and elsewhere, are noted for their devotion and loyal companionship, and are registered through the National Stockdog Registry. Napoli Lehnert and his wife Rena, who own the vineyard behind the winery from which we harvest Pinotage and much of our other grapes, have two beautiful examples – Pinot and Crush.
Learn about our vineyard partners.