The Owners
The resident manager and co-owner of Rock Basin Vineyards and Guest Homes is the affable Ms. B. Parsons. "B" is short for Berenice, an old family name. She runs the operations along with her mother, Bernie Rawlings, a lover of good red wines -- from a Canadian lumber family, who settled with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.
B. and her siblings grew up in Bay Area, and B. came to San Luis Obispo to study architecture at Cal Poly. She completed her studies in the Cal Poly School of Business in 1972. Formerly married to Bruce Parsons of San Luis Mill and Lumber for 20 years, B. Parsons also ran her own business as a massage therapist in Pismo Beach, CA.
A sailing adventure in the Caribbean in the 1996 changed her life forever. "We were at sea for 22 days between Venezuela and Panama, running out of food and water, with constant night watches, pitting ourselves against gales, lightning, drug runners and mal de mer." she says.
Back on land, B. Parsons continued her adventure by moving to the rustic upper Salinas River watershed in 1997 -- and trying her hand at a completely new venture, growing wine grapes on the family owned ranch.
"I knew we had land with good soil and water, but nothing else about farming wine grapes," she says, and started her studies of vineyard management at Cal Poly.
Today, she manages the grapes -- and the guests -- at Rock Basin Vineyards and Guest Homes. With a focus on sustainable farming techniques, B. Parsons is also looking forward to future grape harvests, and to more Rock Basin Vineyards wines and visitors.
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