Casa Grande

Casa Grande is the hub of activity at Ranquilco — the gathering place for meals and good company. The kitchen looks out through a windowed outer wall onto the river valley; the dining room has a vaulted cathedral ceiling and a handcrafted stone fireplace; the patio is where most meals are eaten, with the river below and the mountains beyond. Guests are welcome anytime to sit with a glass of wine and take it all in.

Construction began in 1978, the year the family bought the ranch. The stones were quarried on the property and brought in by tractor — two trips a day throughout the summer months. Each stone was hand-shaped with mallet and chisel by a master Argentine stonemason and his assistants. The project took three years, completed entirely by hand without power tools or modern equipment. Everything in the house — the antique furniture, the Waterford china, the piano — was brought in over the mountains and across the river by tractor.