Full text of "Italian Swiss Colony and the wine industry : oral history transcript / and related material, 1969-1971"

The Rossi twins, about 1906.
Robert D. Rossi, left, Edmund
Rossi, right. Photograph
courtesy Edmund A. Rossi.

Group at Asti, California, about 1894. Standing, left to
right: Kucich, foreman of the Italian Swiss Agricultural
Colony cooperage department; Louis Profumo, manager of
the organization s New York office; and Dr. G. Ollino, one
of the founding members. Seated: Robert D. Rossi, Ettore
Patrizi, editor of the newspaper, L Italia; Edmund A. Rossi:
and Andrea Sbarboro. Photograph courtesy Edmund A. Rossi.

Andrea Sbarboro, about 1915. Photograph
courtesy California State Library.

Pietro C. Rossi.
Wine Institute.

Photograph courtesy

University of California Berkeley

J. (_t 1 1 L, X o

September 26, 197*1

EDMUND A. ROSSI-

Family of vintners

A Mass for
Winemaker
E. A. Rossi

A Mass of Christian Burial
for Edmund A. Rossi, a
member of a pioneer Call-

fornia wine-making family,
will be offered at 10 a.m.

tomorrow (Friday) at St.
Edwards Church, 3320 Cali
fornia street.

Mr. Rossi, the son of the
1 late Pietro Carlo Rossi, one
of the founders of the Italian 1
Swiss Colony Winery, died
Tuesday at a Pacifica con-
; valesccnt hospital. He w;is
1 i ,6.

At the time pf his" death he

; was the oldest alumnus of
llic. University of San Fran
cisco.

Mr. llo-si was prcsidc- if of ;
Italian Swiss
Winery for 27 years.

He v, :js one of the foui !-
ing members of the Vine In
stitute in 10?4 and serve. I as
a director there until U47.

! &gt; :&gt;! ii ;, :;;. eel a vi

in the in

ard

and serve."! ;; I i^cr
fur 12

When he retired, he was
honored for his "outstanding
and unselfish personal con
tribution to the advance-,
ment of the wine industry"
by the American Society of
Enologists.

Mr. Rossi, a man of wide
cultural interests and was a
sustaining member of the
San Francisco Opera Asso
ciation, the Leonardo da
Vinci Society and the San
Francisco Wine and Food
Society, of which lie was a
charter member.

lie \\ss also a pioneer
member of Die Cenacoln
Club. .

Mr. Rossi s \\ife, the for
mer Beatrice Brandt, rlicd

in \&lt;m..

lie is .survived by a spn, ;
Edmund Jr. of Ifcaldsburg; ;
a daughter, Yvonne Dolan of
Oakland; a brother, the Rev.
P. Carlo Rossi, S. J. ; five sis-
lets, Sister Aimee Rossi and
Sister Olga Rossi, both pf
the Sacred Heart Order, Be
atrice Torrens, Albina Wall
and Eleanore O Donnell and.
by sik grandchildren and
two great grandchildren.

The Rosary will be recited
at S Vcloek tonight (Thurs
day) tit the Memorial Chap
els of Carcw & English. Ma-
yonic at Golden Gate ave-
niie.

The family prefers memo
rial contributions to llv-
Francisco College for \Vi mi
en .or ! the Vnhen-i;.
S .in FJ . I Cisco.

CISCO

September 26, 197**

Edmund Rossi,
ex-chief Italian
Swiss Colony

Edmund A. Rossi, presi-
. dent of Italian Swiss Colony
Winery for 27 years, {lied
Tuesday. He was 86.

The son of the late Pietro
Carlo Rossi, one of the
founders of Italian Swiss
Colony, Mr. Rossi followed
in. the family tradition.

He was a founder and a
director of the Wine Insti r
lute, the trade association of
California wine growers. He
was also instrumental in
creating the California Wine
Advisory Board, where he
served as manager for 12
years.

During and alter his long
career, Mr. Rossi received
numerous awards including:
a merit award from the
American Society of Enolo-
gists. a professional wine-
makers organization; the
Christ the King award from
St. Ignatius College Prepa
ratory, and accolades from
the Cenacolo Club for his
"outstanding character as a
family man, citizen and
businessman."

Until his death Mr. Rossi
was the oldest alumnus of
the University of San Fran
cisco.

Mr. Rossi outlived both iris
wife Beatrice Brandt Rossi,
who died in 1955, and his
twin brother, Robert D. Ros
si, who was managing exec
utive of Italian Swiss Colony
Winery.

He is survived by his son, ,
"Edmund A. Rossi Jr., a , :
daughter, Yvonne. Dol an,
one brother, Rev. P. Carlo
Rossi, S.J.; five sisters: Tor-
rens, Albina Wall, Eleanore I

O Donnell, Sister Ai nice
ftossi and Sister Olga Rossi;
grandchildren Christine,
Therese and Brandt Rossi
and Paul, Anne and Peter
Dolan an d great
grandchildren Jason and
Edmund Dolan.

The Rosary will be recited
today at 8 p.m. at the Me
morial Chapels of Carew &
English, Masonic at Golden
Gate Ave. A Mass of Chris
tian Burial will be offered at
10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Ed-
I ward s Church.

University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley

Regional Oral History Office

Edmund A. Rossi
ITALIAN SWISS COLONY AND THE WINE INDUSTRY

With an Introduction by
Maynard A. Amerine

An Interview Conducted by
Ruth Teiser

1971 by The Regents of The University of California

Edmund A. Rossi

Photograph courtesy
The Wine Institute,
circa 1960.

All uses of this manuscript are covered by a
legal agreement between the Regents of the University
of California and Edmund A. Rossi, dated 1^ January
1971* The manuscript is thereby made available for
research purposes. All literary rights in the manu
script, including the right to publish, are reserved
to the Bancroft Library of the University of California
at Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted
for publication without the written permission of the
Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of
California at Berkeley.

Requests for permission to quote for publication
should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office,
436 Library, and should include identification of the
specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the
passages, and identification of the user. The legal
agreement with Edmund A. Rossi requires that he be
notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which
to respond.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Edmund A. Rossi

PREFACE i

INTRODUCTION BY MAYNARD A. AMERINE ill

INTERVIEW HISTORY iv

THE FOUNDERS OF THE ITALIAN SWISS AGRICULTURAL COLONY 1

THE ROSSI AND CAIRE FAMILIES 10

WINERY CHANGES AND EXPANSION 17

AFFILIATION WITH THE CALIFORNIA WINE ASSOCIATION 25

THE ROSSI TWINS 30

1911 TO PROHIBITION 3^

ASTI GRAPE PRODUCTS COMPANY AND THE C.W.A. 40

PROHIBITION PERIOD ACTIVITIES 50

INDUSTRY ORGANIZATIONS AND THE PRORATE 55

REPEAL TO 19^-2 63

WITH NATIONAL DISTILLERS, 19^2-19^7 73

THE WINE ADVISORY BOARD AND THE WINE INSTITUTE 76

PROGRAMS AND FUNCTIONS 86

OVERVIEWS 95

INDEX 99
(For Wines and Grapes see page 103)

PREFACE

The California Wine Industry Oral History Series, a
project of the Regional Oral History Office, was initiated
in 1969, the year noted as the bicentenary of continuous
wine making in this state. It was undertaken through the
action and with the financing of the Wine Advisory Board,
and under the direction of University of California faculty
and staff advisors at Berkeley and Davis.

The purpose of the series is to record and preserve
information on California grape growing and wine making that
has existed only in the memories of wine men. In some cases
their recollections go back to the early years of this
century, before Prohibition. These recollections are of
particular value because the Prohibition period saw the
disruption of not only the industry itself but also the
orderly recording and preservation of records of its
activities. Little has been written about the industry from
late in the last century until Repeal. There is a real
paucity of information on the Prohibition years (1920-1933),
although some wine making did continue under supervision of
the Prohibition Department. The material in this series on
that period, as well as the discussion of the remarkable
development of the wine industry in subsequent years (as
yet treated analytically in few writings) will be of aid to
historians. Of particular value is the fact that frequently
several individuals have discussed the same subjects and
events or expressed opinions on the same ideas, each from
his own point of view.

Research underlying the interviews has been conducted
principally in the University libraries at Berkeley and
Davis, the California State Library, and in the library of
the Wine Institute, which has made its collection of in
many cases unique materials readily available for the
purpose.

Three master indices for the entire series are being
prepared, one of general subjects, one of wines, one of
grapes by variety. These will be available to researchers
at the conclusion of the series in the Regional Oral History
Office and at the library of the Wine Institute.

The Regional Oral History Office was established to
tape record autobiographical interviews with persons who
have contributed significantly to recent California history.
The office is headed by Willa K. Baum and is under the
administrative supervision of James D. Hart, the Director
of The Bancroft Library.

Ruth Teiser
Project Director
California Wine Industry
Oral History Series

1 March 1971

Regional Oral History Office
4-86 The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley

iii

INTRODUCTION

Edmund A. Rossi was associated with four distinct phases
of the California wine industry: the pre-prohibition winery
at Asti, Prohibition operations there, wine distribution after
Repeal, and Management of the Wine Advisory Board. In all of
these activities he exercised considerable influence.

Before Prohibition Edmund Rossi and his twin brother,
Robert, were associated in managing Italian-Swiss Colony at
Asti. Mr. Rossi remembers and recounts many of the details
of their operations. During Prohibition the extensive
vineyards of Italian-Swiss Colony were maintained. Grapes
were shipped to markets all over the United States. Later
grape concentrate was also produced.

Following Repeal Italian-Swiss Colony had very wide

(perhaps the largest) distribution of its brands throughout

the country. In 19^-2 the winery and vineyards were sold to

National Distillers. The price is not given.

After a few years of retirement Mr. Rossi became the
General Manager of the Wine Advisory Board. He remained in
this position for twelve years and has been permanently
retired since 1960.

He gives many details of the California grape industry
during Prohibition and also of the early organization of the
Grape Growers League of California, of which the present Wine
Institute is the descendent.

Mr. Rossi at eighty-two is still active in the San
Francisco Wine and Food Society, of which he is now the senior
member. His friends know him as a good judge of wine, a
gourmet, soft spoken and with a sense of humor. Those who
worked with him will remember his unfailing courtesy and
politeness.

Kaynard A. Amerine

Professor, Viticulture and Enology

16 March 1971

101 Wickson Hall

University of California at Davis

ERRATA - Rossi

Page and line

Error and correction

iii, para 4

not a few years but "a few months"
not General Manager but "Manager"

5, 1. 9 from bottom

not that s his wife but "that s his
mother, the wife of Andrea Sbarboro"

15,1. 15 from bottom not 1905 but "1900 or 1901"

17, 1. 5 and 6 from
bottom

Malesano should be "Malesani"

69, 1. 13 from bottom not the son of one of my sisters but

"some of my sisters"

INTERVIEW HISTORY

The letter asking Edmund A. Rossi to record his
recollections for this series was sent to him on March 26,
1969, the Regional Oral History Office being unaware that Mr.
Rossi was then in the hospital following a serious automobile
accident injury. The interview was delayed until he had
recovered, some weeks after he had returned to his home. It
ws-s held in four sessions on June **-, June 11, June 20, and
July 9, 1969, in the home in Pacific Heights, San Francisco,
which Mr. Rossi and his family had built and occupied since
the 1920 s.

Mr. Rossi spoke slowly and thoughtfully for the most part
but occasionally, when discussing facts or events about which
he held definite opinions, fast and assertively. Both firmness
and tact were evident. His interest in the wine industry and
the pleasure he took in recalling the past were manifest.

In the initial transcript of the tape, the interviewer
deleted a few repetitions and some questions that failed to
elicit recollections. The transcript was then taken to Mr.
Rossi on December 3 1970, and the editing explained to him.
Later he read it over and made some notes. On January 13, 1971,
in consultation with the interviewer, he made a few corrections
and additions, all with meticulous regard for correct detail.

Ruth Teiser
Interviewer

22 March 1971

^86 The Bancroft Library

University of California at Berkeley

(Interview #1 - June

1969)

THE POUNDERS OF THE ITALIAN SWISS AGRICULTURAL
COLONY

Teiser:

Rossi:
Teisers

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Do you know this pamphlet, The Story of Italian
Swiss Colony? It was published in 1967, I presume
by United. Vintners.*

United Vintners.

If it is accurate we can rely upon it for some
facts.

I think it s pretty accurate. [Looking at pamphlet]
Now, for example, you can t question the time that
Andrea Sbarboro came here to California. You can t
question that he got into the grocery business. And
that he established a sort of savings and loan
society.

Yes. What sort of a man was he?
personally when you knew him?

What was he like

Well, he was not a technical man. He was more of a
front man, you might say. What I mean, he liked to
be before the public. He enjoyed making talks,
speeches. He wasn t a technical man, from the wine
industry standpoint. That depended strictly on my
father.

Teiser: Did Mr. Sbarboro himself ask your father** to come in?

*See Appendix.
**Pietro C. Rossi

Hossi: Yes.

Teiser: How did they know each other?

Hossi: Well, it might have been through this Dr. G.*

Ollino. Dr. G. Ollino was here in San Francisco and
was close to my father.

Teiser: Who was he?

Hossi: He was a physician, bachelor physician, and came
from Italy. And he made UD his mind that after a
certain number of years he would, retire back to
Italy, even though his health was in good condition,
which he did. And the fact of the matter is that he
had retired back to Italy before his inactive days,
and both my father and mother and the rest of us saw
him in Italy after we went back there. He acted as
a sort of chaperon, guide, you know, through the
towns of Italy during both the trip my father took
with my eldest sister and another one my brother and
I took with him and my mother and sisters after we
got through the university in 1909, before we got
into business.

Teiser: I see. And Dr. Ollino was back in Italy then?
Rossi: Back in Italy.

Teiser: I read somewhere that he had sent cuttings to Italian
Swiss Colony.

Rossi: Yes, that s right. Of course I don t know now...
because they say about cuttings from Spain and all
of that. Well, that might have been exaggerated a
little bit from the different countries. But there s
no question about it, he did send cuttings from Italy,
As far as having gone to other countries, I wouldn t
vouch for that. But you can say cuttings from
Europe, without being specific about the nations or
the countries from which they came.

Teiser: And he was a friend of Andrea Sbarboro s?

Rossi: Well, he was more a friend of my father s. He was
from that part of the country that my father came

*Giuseppe Ollino

Rossi: from. Piedmont.

Teiser: Mr. Sbarboro remained... what?

Rossi: Secretary.

Teiser: Secretary of the company all through?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: This you would know as a matter of family tradition,
I suppose: Was it actually Mr. Sbarboro whose idea
Italian Swiss Colony was?

Rossi: Yes. Agricultural Colony.*

Teiser: But, as I understand it, it didn t quite work out.

Rossi: It didn t work out as he originally intended it.

Teiser: How did it change?

Rossi: Well, you can say this, that they were going to sell
shares on a small installment basis, but these
people, immigrants, didn t have even those few dollars
to put aside out of their savings. And so, anyhow,
it was a matter of years and years before they could
expect to get any return out of it. And they couldn t
be expected to live on future prospects, because they
were poor; they were immigrants.

Teiser: Was the idea that they should go up there and work
in the vineyards?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Did they?

Rossi: Oh, they did.

Teiser: They actually went from San Francisco up there?

Rossi: Because then they became employees, nothing more.
Nor less.

Teiser: So the ownership of the company....

*The original name was Italian Swiss Agricultural
Colony.

Rossi: Was stockholders.

Teiser: Did some of the officers own stock?

iiossi: Oh yes. Andrea Sbarboro. My father. My father was
one of the principal stockholders eventually.

Teiser: Was Mr. Sbarboro a good manager, good businessman
that is?

Rossi: Well.... I think that he depended on others. He had
a son, who is still alive, who was very smart and
shrewd. And he really ran the bank,* his son did,
Alfred. He s 93 years old now.

Teiser: Was Mr. Sbarboro active in the actual management of
the Italian Swiss Colony?

Rossi: No. When it was a question of making a talk, he*d
be there. He enjoyed entertaining. And making
talks, especially when it came to the time [before]
Prohibition. He led the fight against Prohibition.
I was trying to locate here the number of shares that
these different people that you have on your list**
owned.

Teiser: Dr. Ollino became a shareholder, too, then?
Rossi: Oh, yes. He was a vice-president.

Teiser: Mr. Sbarboro, as I understand it, left the industry
entirely at the time of Prohibition?

Rossi: Yes. Well, no. After my father.... You see, in

1911, my father was killed by a horse on the ranch,
and he was one of the principal stockholders. Now
my twin brother*** and I [had been] with him two
years, learning the wine business from him.

*Italian-American Bank.

**Andrea Sbarboro, Mark J. Fontana, Dr. Giuseppe

Ollino, Henry Casanova., Dr. Paolo de Vecchi, Stephan
Campodonico, M. Perata and L. Vasconi. These were
so-called founders of Italian Swiss Colony. For
others, see t). 5.

***Robert D. Rossi.

Teiser: You d been there since 1909?

Hossi: 1909, yes. And when my father died, he had practically
all his eggs in one basket, which was not good for
his family of ten children and for a widow. So we
had the opportunity of selling out. Now at that time
already half of the ownership of the Italian Swiss
Colony was in the hands of the California Wine
Association, since 1901. In 1901, there was formed
an Italian Swiss Colony holding company, which
consisted of 50 per cent of the stockholders of the
Italian Swiss Agricultural Colony and 50 per cent
California Wine Association holdings. Now when my
father died, two or three years afterwards, we wanted
to put ourselves the family particularly in a
better financial situation, where we weren t depending
on one source of income, and we sold out the Italian
Swiss Agricultural Colony stockholders sold out the
other 50 per cent to the California Wine Association.
And my brother and I went to work for the California
Wine Association.

Teiser: Had most of the stock of the original shareholders
by then come into your possession?

Hossi: Oh, no, no. They still held it as far as I know.

Mr. Sbarboro was the second largest individual stock
holder. My father was the largest. Dr. Ollino held
some shares. Vasconi was not a stockholder. Ke was
the superintendent at Asti. Somewhere I came across
an item that said the number of shares that were
originally issued to the founders: [Reading]
"Italian Swiss Agricultural Colony was incorporated
March 10, 1881, with 300,000 shares authorized. The
incorporators held 858 at par value $60, giving
original capitalization of" $51, 4-80. The following
are the directors and shareholders: Henry Casanova,
50 shares; Mark J. Pontana, 50 shares; Nellie T.
Pontana" guess that was his wife "10 shares; M. Perata,
10 shares; A.E. Sbarboro, 50 shares; Mrs. Romilda
Sbarboro 11 that s his wife "10 shares; G.B. Cevasco,
25 shares; B. Prapolli, 50 shares; A. Daneri, 20
shares; V. Ravenna, 5 shares. The balance of the
shares were to be sold to employees through monthly
wage deductions. Few employees desired this, however,
thus ending the founders wish that the organization
would be a cooperative venture."

Teiser: I see. Could you then give your personal recollations
of each of these shareholders as you remember them?

Teiser: What sort of people they were?

Rossi: Oh yes.

Teiser: What did Mr. Sbarboro look like?

Rossi: He was bald. And rather heavy-set. Very pleasant
personality, affable. And smooth talker, very
polished. My father was purely the business man.
He never made talks.

Teiser: Your father was certainly a handsome man.

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Yes, he was. But he had the technical knowledge, my
father did, and being a druggist and a chemist, he
was well-qualified to take on the responsibilities
of wine making.

There is still a Rossi drugstore in San Francisco.

Well, we have no connection whatsoever. You see that
was not my father s. It was my uncle.

Oh, what was his name?

D.P. Rossi.* There was the difference between night
and day between my father and his brother. They both
came out of the same town in Italy. But my father
was a family man and his brother was a bachelor, an
artist sort of. He liked to play the harp. And he
had an apartment over his drugstore two blocks away
from my father s drugstore.

So there were two brothers who had two different
drugstores; I see.

They didn t get along. They had nothing in common.
They simply had nothing in common. When my uncle got
sick and was like to die, my mother was good enough
to take him into our house, and he died in our house.
That was after lay father passed away. But he

as I say, a bachelor x&lt;ri.th his cronies. Music, art,
things like that.

Teiser: And he had no interest in Italian Swiss?

^Domenico P. Rossi.

Rossi: No. So when my uncle died, his partner, or one of
his clerks and Dr. Sartori,* asked our family if we
had any objection to their incorporating themselves
as the Rossi Drug Company, which we didn t. So
that s the present owners of the Rossi Drug Company.
But we have never had any interest in that one there.
As I say, strictly on the part of my uncle, not on
my father s side.

My father got out of the drug business completely
when he had to take over complete charge of Italian
Swiss Agricultural Colony. Well, now here you can
see how in the beginning here they issued 858 shares.
Eventually of course there were more than that.

Teiser: Who was Mark J. Fontana?

Rossi: He was the California Fruit Canners Association.

Teiser: How did he happen to be interested in Italian Swiss
Colony?

Rossi: He was in the Italian colony.

Teiser: Was he active in Italian Swiss?

Rossi: Oh yes, he was the first president.

Teiser: Do you remember him?

Rossi: Oh, yes.

Teiser: What was he like?

Rossi: He was a very small man. Handing out cigars all the
time. Nail in your coffin if you smoke cigarettes.
Every cigarette was a nail in your coffin.

Teiser: But not a cigar?

Rossi: Not a cigar, no. He used to smoke one cigar after
the other. Now, I have very fond recollections of
Mr. Fontana because, you see, after my father died,
he became president again of the Italian Swiss Colony
for a few years.

*Henry J. Sartori, who married a daughter of Andrea
Sbarboro.

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

And I at that time was still living up at Asti.
I was ten years a resident of Asti, from 1909 to
1919 I was in charge of the winery. And after my
father died in 1911 and Mr. Pontana became ^resident,
he used to cone up and occasionally visit me for a
weekend, which was fine with me because everything
I did was fine. He never criticized me. I was on
my own. And so I was glad of his visits because he
always went away happy. And so then afterwards in
191^ Ttfhen Italian Swiss Colony was completely taken
over by California Wine Association, my brother and
I went to work for the California Wine Association
under the aegis still of Italian Swiss Colony, but
it was owned and directed by Mr. [A.R. ] Morrow,
general manager.

I want later to ask you a good deal about thafc
neriod.

Was Mr. Henry Casanova very active in the....

No.

He was a shareholder but not a participant?

That s right.

Who was Dr. Paolo de Vecchi?

Dr. de Vecchi* was a surgeon in San Francisco, who
then retired.... Who went to live in New York, and
he died in New York. His family lived in New York.

Was he active?

No, just a shareholder.

Did he have a son who later was interested in Italian
Swiss Colony?

No. He had two sons, but they weren t interested
Well, he had two sons and one daughter, Marguerita.
She never married. We used to know them very well.
Of course they had a summer home up there [at Asti],
and that was near our summer home, right down the
road from us.

*Al though his name appears frequently as "De Vecchi,"
according to Edmund A Rossi, it was actually spelled
with a small d, "de Vecchi."

Teiser: Mr. 3. Campadonico?
Rossi: I don t remember him.
Teiser: And Mr. Perata?

Rossi: Mr. Perata was another small.... Well, these were
names that i-rere well known in the Italian colony.
Frapolli was a well-known name in the Italian colony.

Teiser: Frappoli was a wine merchant, was he?
Rossi: I think so.

Teiser: It seems to me that the Bancroft Library has some
letters which I gave them not many years ago, Mr.
Frapolli *s correspondence with other members of the
wine industry, ordering wine and so forth. In
Italian. He was in San Francisco, wasn t he?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: He s the same one, then.*

Rossi: Cevasco** was a salesman.

Teiser: Did he remain active in the company?

Rossi: No. Well, yes. He retired to New York and he was a
salesman in New York. After my father opened a New
York office, he sent, him back there. After they had
established headquarters in New York. So he worked
as salesman in New York. He was a good salesman too.
I knew him well.

*Langley s San Francisco Directory of 1881 lists:
"Frapolli , B. & Co. (Baptista Frapolli ) , native
i^ines, 710 Samsome."

**Giovanni B. Cevasco.

The Rossi twins, about 1906.
Robert D. Rossi, left, Edmund
Rossi, right. Photograph
courtesy Edmund A. Rossi.

Group at Asti, California, about 1894. Standing, left to
right: Kucich, foreman of the Italian Swiss Agricultural
Colony cooperage department; Louis Profumo, manager of
the organization s New York office; and Dr. G. Ollino, one
of the founding members. Seated: Robert D. Rossi, Ettore
Patrizi, editor of the newspaper, L Italia; Edmund A. Rossi;
and Andrea Sbarboro. Photograph courtesy Edmund A. Rossi.

Andrea Sbarboro, about 1915. Photograph
courtesy California State Library.

Pietro C. Rossi.
Wine Institute.

Photograph courtesy

THE ROSSI AND CAIRE FAMILIES

Teiser: Were there any others of the founders that you recall?

Rossi: Well, there was also someone not mentioned here,

Adrian Merle, who was a relation of Justinian Caire.
He was an original stockholder and a director of the
agricultural colony. His son, A.J. Merle, a cousin
of my mother s, later became a heavy stockholder in
our reorganized comapny, Asti Grape Products Company.
He bought out Mr. Prati s* mother-in-law s interest.
He was a director of Asti Grape Products Company.

Teiser: Well, that I think brings us to your father. A good
deal has been written about him, but I know that
there s a great deal of family recollection that you
have, and personal recollection, of him. You mentioned
that he was born in. . .

Rossi: Piedmont. He was a graduate of the University of
Torino. In pharmacy. He was one of the youngest
graduates in the university.

Teiser: Had his family been in the wine business?

Rossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

I don t know. There s some reference to that, but I
question it.

His family must have been fairly well-to-do to send
him to the university.

Yes.

Do you know anything about his parents?

Well, we used to have pictures around, but he came to
this country because he didn t get along you see,
his mother died, and his father remarried, and he
didn t get along with his stepmother, so the two boys
left Italy to come to America. And they had an uncle
here.

What was his name?

Zabaldano.** Maybe that might have been an inducement

*Enrico Prati
**Alexander Zabaldano

Rossi: for them to come here. He was in the drugstore business
too, Zabaldano, their uncle.

Teiser: In San Francisco?
Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: So they came directly here?

Rossi: They did. Came directly from Italy to San Francisco.
Well, that was something in those days, you know,
because most of the immigrants got stranded in Hew
York, and it took the hardier individuals to come all
the way to the Pacific Coast. More energetic, and
those maybe who had more means, education, and so
forth.

Teiser: Do you know about what year it was?

Rossi: 18?5.

Teiser: Then he met your mother here?

Rossi: Yes. My mother was the daughter of Justinian Caire.
She was born in San Francisco.

Teiser: Very interesting family on both sides, then, that you
have. Do you know what year she was born?

Rossi: Well, now let s see, she was around 55 when she died,
and she died in 191?.

Teiser: What was her name?

Rossi: Amelie. With the accent. Amelie Caire. Her mother
was a Genovese, Italian. He came in 1850, my grand
father, around the Horn, with a cargo of merchandise
on a sailing vessel, cargo of merchandise for the
miners. I think it took him six months to get here
from France. Around the Horn.

He started himself in business in San Francisco,
then the year afterward he went back to Italy to get
married. And when he came back, they came across
the Isthmus of Panama. Or was it that other route
down there, Central America? Tehauntepec. That took
a lot of energy on my grandmother s part to make that
trip. She t*as a hardy individual.

Teiser: Do you remember Justinian Caire?

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Hossi:

Oh, yes. They used to live in Oakland, you see. And
my brother and I used to spend weekends there at my
grandmother s and grandfather s.

What sort of a man was he?

He was a rather stern fellow. And he was.... He met
with an accident too, on Santa CruT: Island. He was
thrown from a horse, and he became an invalid, became
crlpr&gt;led. So that he died in his home from a stroke.
At Eighth and Harrison. They lived at Eighth and
Harrison, well, near where Chinatown was, the Chinese
section of Oakland. They had almost a square block
of land there. Half a square block there. They had
a big garden, front garden. I remember that very well,
as I say, because I used to spend the weekends there
when I was a schoolboy.

When your father came to San Francisco, he must have
brought a little capital with him?

Capital, yes. Because he became a partner with a man
by the name of Steylaars* in the drug business. He
had a partner in the drug business at the corner of
Columbus Avenue, which was called Montgomery Avenue,
and Dupont, now Grant Avenue. Right where the topless
joints are now. It was where Dupont turns into
Columbus Avenue. And he was there all these years.
I remember going to that drugstore very, very well.

Was it on the triangular lot?
On the east side of the street.

Did he continue operating the store after he went to
Italian Swiss Colony?

Yes, until it became too much. Then he had to give
up his drug business and devote himself completely
to the wine business.

I m amazed that he was able to keep them both going
at all.

Well, he used to spend all his weekends up at the
vineyards.

*Charles L. Steylaars.

Teiser: That was 1888 that he took charge of the winery.
Was that the year you were born?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: How many children were there in your family?

Rossi: Well, my mother and father had 1^, but never more

than ten because four of them died as young children.
In those days, you know, they used to get children s
diseases and they didn t last. So four of them died
young.

Teiser: Of those who survived, who was the oldest?

Rossi: Mrs. Gherini. Mrs. Ambrose Gherini. She has four
children surviving her. Two attorneys and two
daughters.

Teiser: What was her first name?

Rossi: Maria. Maria Gherini.

Teiser: And who was second of those who survived?

Rossi: My brother and I.

Teiser: Oh, the twins. You and Robert.

Rossi: Yes. And then my sister Esther. She never married.
She sort of took care of the family after my mother
died. She only died about a year or two ago. And
then two nuns, Sacred Heart nuns. M. Aimee Rossi
and A. Olga Rossi. They hold Ph.D. s, one in
education and one in languages. Aimee has a Ph.D.
from Stanford, was Dean of Studies at San Diego
College for Women. Olga was in charge of public
relations at San Francisco College for Women at Lone
Mountain. And she s in languages, got her Ph.D. at
Cal. With my brother, the Jesuit priest who became a
Ph.D. at Cal, too. He s now head of the department
of languages at U.S.F.

Teiser: And he was named for your father?

Rossi: Yes, P. Carlo Rossi. And then I have three sisters
that married eventually that live in San Francisco,
all widows. Beatrice Torrens. And Albina Wall. It

Rossi: was her son, Dr. Wall, that operated on me.* And then
Mrs. Eleanor O f Donnell. Her husband, was the general
counsel for Stauffer Chemical Company.

Teiser: Well, you certainly have a distinguished family.
Rossi: Yes, they all did well.

Teiser: Going back to your father. He was a druggist, but
how did he happen to know about wine?

Rossi: Well, Italians, you know, all drink wine, and it

might have been that he d had some connection with
the grape industry in Italy. I don t know about that.
And then, being a chemist, you know. Because my
father got into the Italian Swiss Agricultural Colony
in 88, and it was established in 81 and 82. But
they put out some vineyards in 81 and 82 and 83.
They got their first crop in 8?. That s when they
determined to put up a building, in 8?. The building
is still there. But they had an Italian winemaker,
was supposed to be an expert, but he made vinegar
instead of wine.

Teiser: What was his name?

Rossi: I don t remember. So it was then that they went to

my father and got him to take over. So they made him
president and winemaker and everything from then on.

Teiser: He must have been an outstanding man to...

Rossi: Yes, he was very energetic and enterprising. There
again it was the difference between him and his
brother. His brother was perfectly satisfied to
remain up in North Beach with his cronies. He never
learnt the English language well. Whereas my father
talked like an American. Yes, he talked English
without an accent.

Teiser: Oh, he did? That is unusual. He must have made
quite an effort.

Do I remember correctly? You were born in Oakland
at your grandparents house?

*Dr. C. Allen Wall. Mr. Rossi had recently had an
accident and required surgery.

Rossi: Yes, at my grandparents home. It was my mother s
family.

reiser: Were your parents living there at that time?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: Your mother went there?

Rossi: She just went there for the event.

Teiser: Where was your family s residence at that time?

Rossi: In North Beach. On Union "between Powell and Mason.
We were right in back of the Russian Church. The
Russian Church s garden in the back adjoined our
garden in the back. It used to kind of scare me,
Easter services you know because they used to have
their I was a little boy, you know. They d have
their services at night, ten at night, you know, and
you d hear this. And to me, five and six years old,
you know, it scared me. Because my room was right
in back of the house adjoining the garden. We lived
there until 1905.

Teiser: So you spent your whole boyhood there?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Where did you go to school?

Rossi: St. Ignatius High School.

Teiser: Did they have a grammar school there also?

Rossi: Well, no, we went to St. Brigid s, Van Ness and

Broadway. We went there for the first few years of
grammar school and finished grammar school at St.
Ignatius, then finished high school, and university
at St. Ignatius College.*

Teiser: Did you, by the time you got into school, think you
were going to be in the wine business? Were you
interested as a youngster in wine, at all?

Rossi: Well, we used to go up to the vineyards. We spent

*Later the University of San Francisco.

Rossi: our vacations up at the vineyards, you know. We had
a summer home up there. That is to say, the company
had a home that we occupied until well, in 1905 we
built our own home. My father built a family home
in 1905. Which is still there. Half is owned by me
and half by my brother s two sons.

Teiser: I wanted to ask you about your own family. You have
two children?

Rossi: Two. Each of them have three children. I ve got
six grandchildren.

Teiser: What are your children s names?

Rossi: Yvonne is xay daughter. Yvonne Dolan.

Teiser: And her husband is?

Rossi: Paul Dolan, Jr. Paul S. Dolan, Jr.

Teiser: And your son?

Rossi: He married a girl that lived in Portland, Gerardine
Doyle.

Teiser: And he s Edmund A. Rossi, Jr.?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: And he s with Italian Swiss Colony?

Rossi: United Vintners; Heublein. He s vice-president in
charge of research.

Teiser: What year were you married?

Rossi: 192^.

Teiser: And your wife s maiden name?

Rossi: Beatrice Brandt. Her father was an engineer from
London.

Teiser: And she died some years ago?
Rossi: Oh, yes, in 1955.

Teiser: Did your father continue maintaining his residence in
San Francisco after he became active in the winery?

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Yes, because after we left North Beach, we
went out to Vallejo and Pillmore. Mo, I ll take
that back; we went out on Vallejo and Octavia. And
Laguna; in that block. On, now I m getting a little
bit behind time. Because.... When was the fire and
earthquake? 1906. Yes, well, we were already out on
Vallejo and Octavia, and we lived there about eight
or ten years. We had a home there. But then it
wasn t big enough for the big family. That s why
we moved out there on the southwest comer of Vallejo
and Fillmore, where now there s that swami temple.

Did your father spend much time at Asti?

Every weekend.

But the offices of the Italian Swiss Colony...

Were in San Francisco.

So he mainly stayed here at the offices?

Oh, yes.

WINERY CHANGES AND EXPANSION

Teiser: Who did he have in immediate charge up there?

Rossi: Superintendent. Vasconi was one. And then a fellow
by the name of Allegrini after Vasconi died.

Teiser: What was Allegrini s first name?
Rossi: Julius, I think.
Teiser: Was he a technologist?

Rossi: Well, he was a vineyardist. But then he had Giulio
Perelli-Minetti as the winemaker, you see. And then
he had a man by the name of Malesano later on. After
Allegrini died, Malesano was the superintendent of
the vineyard.

Teiser: But Perelli-Minetti was the winemaker throughout a
long period?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Did he leave because...

Rossi: They went to form their own company. That s what
gave me a chance. It was fortunate for me he did.
It happened while we were on this trip to Europe,
my brother and I, after we graduated. We were on
this trip to Europe* when we got word that there
were three or four of them in the company who were
going to form their own company, and Perelli-Minetti
was one of them. And he was going to compete, you
see. But it gave me a chance to assume responsibility
under my father that I wouldn t have had if the man
hadn t quit. So it developed me. I became winemaker.

Teiser: I heard the story from Mr. Antonio Perelli-Minetti
who said his brother and two of the other men were
fired by Italian Swiss Colony. He apparently thought
it was reasonable of your father to fire them.**

He fired himself I

Oh, did he? I thought they were fired.

Oh, no, no, no, not at all. I was with my father in
London when we got the news and had to cancel our
steamer reservations and make new ones so as to get
hone a week sooner. My father didn t fire them. My
father s assistant, Mr. Federspiel, may have fired
them, but my father didn t; we were done out of a
week s visit in London. They quit to form the
California.. ..

Teiser: Anglo-California Wine Company.

Rossi: My father s nephew was among them.

Teiser: Oh, he was? What was his name?

Rossi: Mario Tribuno.

Teiser: How was the Tribuno family related then?

Rossi: Through my father s family.

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

*In 1909.
**See A. Perelli-Minetti interview in this series.

Teiser: Somebody uses the Tribune label for vermouth now.

Rossi: Well, that s Tribune s son. He s got his office in
New York. And he sells through 21 corporation.

Teiser: That s it "21" Brands. It must be manufactured for
him. ...

Rossi: Perelli-Minetti manufactures it... or produces it.

We don t like the word "manufacture. " Produces the
basic wine. And Jack Tribuno, the son, supplies
the formula for the herbs, supposed to have a secret
formula. And he s very active. Jack Tribuno is the
one that s running it. Mrs. Tribuno is still alive,
Louise Tribuno; lives out on Long Island.

That s profitable business they have, the
vermouth. Good distribution.

Teiser: After your father took over Italian Swiss Colony, I
gather that they continued to build more wine making
facilities at the winery. Was he in charge of that,
and everything of that sort?

Rossi: Yes. Not only that, but they bought land in Madera,
in the San Joaquin Valley. The Italian Swiss Colony
had several wineries in the San Joaquin Valley. In
fact, one of the principal things that he wanted, to
find out when we went to Europe in 1909 was how to
make table wine in a hot country. You see? And
there s where he was ahead of the industry, because
in 1905 in Prance they were talking about the pure
yeast culture method and sulphur dioxide method of
making wine.

That was one of the modern techniques that was
of the greatest value to the quality of California
wines. Because when we were in Paris we got acquainted
with equipment manufacturers and people that had
connections with the wine industry, and my father
made arrangements to buy the sulphur dioxide in the
various forms that it came in. Came out of Germany
in the form of potassium meta-bisulphite, and it came
out of France in a liquid sulphur dioxide in gas form
in drums, and he bought some right then and there and
sent it back home and we got it as it arrived September
first just at the beginning of vintage season. And
that was 1909, the first time we went to work my
brother and I. The first thing I did was to put into

Rossi: fermentation practice the use of the sulphur dioxide
together with pure cultures, and did that among the
company s different wineries. I had to do it
surreptitiously because at that tine Dr. Harvey Wiley
was death on the use of sulphur dioxide.

Teiser: Who was Dr. Wiley?

Rossi: He was the head of the federal department in
Washington Pure Food.

But the action of the suphur dioxide was to
control the wild yeast on the grapes. You see, the
grapes have yeast on their "blooms and there are
good and bad yeasts. Now the wild yeasts are the
ones that develop first when your grapes are crushed,
and if you use sulphur dioxide in limited quantities
you ll sort of innoculate the wild yeast until the
good wine yeast can take hold, and by that time the
good wine yeast has performed its action of fermenting
the sugar of the grape and you ve got a sound
fermentation. Well, my father was the first to
establish that on a commerical scale.

I remember after the California Wine Association
took over and I became district manager of the
wineries of the California Wine Association and of
Italian Swiss Colony in Napa and Sonoma counties I
got the California Wine Association wineries to use
the sulphur dioxide method. I m the one, not Mr.
Morrow, because he really wasn t up to it yet. This
was 191^. And when I submitted the samples of the
wine that had been made on the fifteenth of October
in the different wineries under my jurisdiction, he
complimented me. I never told him one of the principal
reasons why the wines were so good. They were
excellent I Sound fermentation, beautiful color, fine
flavor and all that.

He never knew what was one of the contributing
factors, because the grapes, at the same time, they
were handled in the proper way. They were sound.
The wine was sound really. I was complimented on it
because of the quality. I used to ship this sulphur
dioxide from the winery at Asti where I was, and used
to ship it out as cleaning solution to different
wineries. But then it became standard procedure in
the wine industry to have pure cultures and the
sulphur dioxide method of fermentation.

Teiser: Under your father s directions quite a number of
other premises were acquired, were they not?

Rossi: Yes, the Madera was the principal one, Lemoore,
Kingsburg.

Teiser: Did the Italian Swiss Colony build the Kingsburg

Winery that is now the Roma one that Louis Martini
had in the meantime?

Rossi: I don t know that they built it, but they used to
operate it with a man by the name of uh he was
superintendent, I remember.* I remember him. And
Louis Martini eventually got it after Prohibition
came.

Teiser: What was the Brotherhood Winery?

Rossi: In New York.

Teiser: Was there a plant here that produced for it?

Rossi: I think so.

Teiser: Which was that?

Rossi: Maybe, it might have been Kingsburg. It might have
been. Paladini was the man s name at Kingsburg
Winery, and that was owned half by the California
Wine Association, but my father operated it for
account of half California Wine Association, half
Italian Swiss Colony. My father had charge of
operating it.

Madera was built by Italian Swiss Colony. That s
a big place. Now it s terrific.

Teiser: Is it still part of Italian Swiss Colony?
Rossi: Yes. They re making twenty million gallons.

Teiser: I have here in a list of about 1912 that it was making
three million gallons. It has Asti at four million,
Cloverdale at five hundred thousand. Pulton what was
at Fulton?

*jfaladini. See below.

Rossi: About the same a half million.

Teiser: Where is Fulton?

Rossi: Five miles north of Santa Rosa.

Teiser: Had Italian Swiss Colony built that?

Rossi: Well, they operated it my father did. A fellow by
the name of Carlo Colabella was the superintendent.

Teiser: And one in Sebastopol.

Rossi: Yes. That was owned half by California Wine Association.

Teiser: And at Clayton?

Rossi: That was a small place a vineyard in Contra Costa
County.

Teiser: And Leinoore, was it a big one?

Rossi: Yes. They made Muscat wine there.

Teiser: Was it owned entirely by Italian Swiss Colony?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: And was it established by your father?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: And Kingsburg was rated here at a million. And one
at Selma.

Rossi: Selma, yes; well, that was mostly brandy operation.

Teiser: And in San Francisco?

Rossi: That was a storage and a shipping point.

Teiser: And in New York?

Rossi: That was a shipping point. My brother was in charge
of the San Francisco plant after we got into the
business.

Teiser: Did you age wine in San Francisco?
Rossi: No. In and out.

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi :

Teiser:

Rossi:

And the same in New York?
Yes.

I have read about your father s interest in champagne
making and. . .

We looked into it in 1909 when we went to Europe.
Through a manufacturer of champagne machinery in
Paris, we got into a connection with Charles Jadeau
in Saurnur, and invited him to come to California.
That is incorrectly stated,* that he came to Rheims.
He did not. Charles Jadeau was in Saumur, which is
a district where they have cavalry in Prance. They
used to have. And it s a nice wine district, very
well known, and they make sparkling wine, vin mousseux,
but they re not allowed to call it champagne there.
Sut the system of fermentation is the same. This
man came [to California a few months later] in 1909,
Jadeau, and we built a champagne plant up at Asti.
And he really made a very good sparkling wine. But
in Prance they don t allow wine that is made outside
the Champagne district to be called champagne even
though it s fermented the same way that it is in the
Champagne district. And the French people are sore
at the United States people, the New York people,
for calling our wines California or New York champagne.
They d rather that we just called them sparkling wines.

Did Mr. Jadeau stay here then until Prohibition?

Until Prohibition.

And you continued making...

I worked with him.

Was he a chemist? Or a winemaker?

Oh, he was a winemaker. He had his own little plant
in Saumur.

Teiser: And he just gave it up and came here?
Rossi: Came here, to California.

*In The Story of Italian Swiss Colony; appendix.

Teiser: What did he do when Prohition came along, go back to
Prance?

Rossi: Back to Prance. By that time he was an older man.
He was ready to retire.

Teiser: What was he like personally?

Eossi: Well, I had to talk French to him, you know, because
he didn t talk English. He was a typical Frenchman,
you know, from the country. Small businessman, I
guess.

Teiser: But a good champagne maker?

Rossi: Yes. Fact of the matter is that when they had those
riots in the Champagne district of France due to the
fact that the champagne makers of France were bringing
in grapes from outside the district and turning it
into champagne, you see, which they didn t want firm
by the name of Ayala Brothers, two brothers, had their
factory destroyed by riots, and they came to look the
situation over in California to see whether they d
want to get interested in making California champagne.
And they came up to Asti; I was with them. And they
got ahold of Jadeau on the side and as one Frenchman
to another, they said, "Is there any foreign wine in
this champagne we ve just tasted?" You see?

Teiser: That was a compliment.

Rossi: Yes. I learned to make champagne under Jadeau.

Teiser: Is it more interesting than making a still wine?

Rossi: Oh, yes. More difficult.

Teiser: What kind of grapes did you use for it up there?

Rossi: Well, you have to use a blend. You have to kind of
work around to get this quality in the wine and that
quality, a certain amount of tartaric acid and a
certain amount of flavor and things like that.

Teiser: What was your main champagne grape there?

Rossi: Well, there was some Riesling and some French

Colombard and Golden Chasselas and Pinot. It was a
blend. Champagne s going like a house afire in
California today. They haven t got enough graces.

flossi: They really haven t got enough grapes in California
to make champagne. They have to make them out of
different varieties than the typical champagne grapes,
That s between us. My son* tells me that they just
can t produce enough.

Teiser: What are their labels now?

Rossi: Lejon. Lejon was taken over by National Distillers
just before they bought us.

AFFILIATION WITH THE CALIFORNIA WINE ASSOCIATION

Teiser: One thing I ve read a little about that I think must
have been very interesting: in the *90 s, California
Wine Association was so dominant that the California
Wine Makers Corporation was established. Was your
father the...?

Rossi: One of the prime movers of the California Wine Makers
association. And Henry J. Crocker. He had a summer
home opposite Asti up in the hills.

Teiser: He had not been interested in the wine industry
before?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: But became interested because of this situation?

Rossi: Yes, I imagine.

Teiser: How large an organization did it become then?

Rossi: I don t think it operated too many years. Apparently
they didn t succeed.

Teiser: Do I understand correctly that the California Wine
Association was dominating the market?

Rossi: Yes. Well, they and others, like Lachman & Jacob! .

*Edmund A. Rossi, Jr., vice-president and director of
quality control at the Italian Swiss Colony winery,
now owned by United Vintners, a subsidiary of
Heublein, Inc.

Rossi:
Teiser:

Hossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Lachman & Jacob! was quite a big strong factor.

Did they get together to set prices and so forth;
was that how it worked?

I imagine they must have done something like that
because in those days they didn t have the anti-trust
laws like they have today.

I think at one time the California Wine Association
was said to be controlling more than half of the
market.

Half, yes. They had forty wineries.

Someone told me that the California Wine Association
was said never to have made a great bottle of wine
and never to have made a bad bottle of wine.

Might have been.

Was that a joke that was well known?

Well, really, the California wine is good,
to find a bad bottle of California wine.

It s hard

I think the idea was that the California Wine Associa
tion had stabilized the quality. It didn t attempt to
make very fine wines, but it did make good wines.

Standard quality,
of Prance.

At that time?

An average higher than the average

I think so. I think the average quality of California
wine today is better than the average quality of
French wine, especially now since they can t import
the Algerian wines. Or that they don t. You see,
France had to import Algerian wines to blend with the
Midi wines of the south because the Midi wines of the
south didn t have enough alcohol in them, enough
sugar in the grapes. So they used to import millions
of gallons of Algerian wines.

That s why my brother and father and I went to
Algeria, find out how they were making table wines
in Algeria in the hot climate that resembled the
Fresno district. And that s where we learnt that
they used.... In Algeria in that hot climate where

Rossi: have the sirocco winds and all that, they use
attemperators to control the temperature of
fermentation. Because fermentation causes heat and
heat can get too high in hot climates, especially
in climates of hot winds.

Teiser: Sone kind of refrigeration?

Rossi: Yes. Now, my father was one of the first to establish
a refrigerated system up at Asti.

Teiser: Did they use refrigeration then, after, at Madera?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: And at Leinoore?

Hossl: Yes. And up at Asti, too, you see. Now especially
it s important because they make table wines a great
deal in the [Central] valley now because they have
to; they haven t got enough wine grapes in the
northern districts to take care of the demand. Now
they make an awful lot of table wines in the valley,
the central valleys, Fresno, Stockton, Lodi, places
like that. Because Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino Counties
and places like that can t produce enough table wines
to take care of the demand.

Teiser: So the California V/ine Makers Corporation finally

wasn t successful and the affiliation with the
California Wine Association was effected, is that it?

Rossi: That s right.

Teiser: Do you think that your father felt defeated when it
seemed necessary to join the California Wine
Association in 1901?

Rossi: Oh, no. Oh, no.

Teiser: The two companies continued operating independently?

Rossi: Well, yes, because.... In my father s day they

operated independently because they weren t owned by
the California Wine Association. Italian Swiss
Colony was only half owned, and they were great
competitors. They competed. It was only after
Italian Swiss Colony was completely sold out after
my father s death that California Wine Association
owned Italian Swiss Colony completely. And while for

Rossi: years they operated separately, still there was a
close affiliation there that didn t exist before.

Teiser: So at the time of your father s death it was still
indeDendent ?

Rossi: Yes. Oh, yes.

Teiser: You said they were making some brandy, too?

Rossi: Oh, yes.

reiser: Was that just a normal part of being in the wine
business or was it...

Rossi: They had to make brandy to make fortified wines.
Teiser: Did they market it also?

Rossi: Oh yes. Madera brandy was very well known. They

made grappa too, you know. Out of pomace. They were
one of the very few firms in California that made
grappa. Because it s difficult to make.

Teiser: Is it?

Rossi: Well, you have to have special stills. And there s
only a certain limited demand for grappa anyhow.
Among the Slavonians. Certain amount among the
Italians, but less so.

Teiser: I tasted it only once, and that shortly after Repeal,
and it was awfully fiery.

Rossi: Yes, it is.

Teiser: Young, isn t it?

Rossi: Yes. And a high aldehyde. It had a bite to it.

Teiser: I think I was asking someone what happens when you
have wine that turns too bad to market. He said,
well, you can put it into brandy.

Rossi: You can do that.

Teiser: Did Italian Swiss Colony put its failures into brandy?

Rossi: No, I wouldn t call it failures because they weren t
exactly failures because there s so much demand for

Rossi:

reiser;

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

brandy that there -wasn t that much wine that failed.

I see. Tli ere wasn t enough to supply?

No.

So it wasn t just a "by-product?

No. No. No. The fact of the matter is that half the
market was fortified wine and you had to have a lot of
wine to roake brandy for fortified, sherry, port, tokay,
muscatel, Madeira.

I was interested in the Italian Swiss Colony "tipo"
wine. Where did the name come from? Oh... this is
an article explaining it? "Wines of Asti," in the
Wine Review.* What does the word t-i-p-o mean?

It means "type." Type of chianti. My father called
it "Tipo Chianti," to be honest, and then competitors
began saying Tipo this and Tipo that for competition.
So my father registered the name "Tipo" just by
Itself.

You said that more than half of the gallonage went
into sweet wines?

Yes.

Much more?

Well, you see, it takes twice as many pounds of
grapes to make one gallon of sweet wines as it does
to make table wine. More grapes went into sweet wine
than table wine.

But did more table wine come out than sweet wine?

I think it used to be about 50-50- And then it got
way down, 25 per cent - 30 per cent [table wine]
after Repeal. And now its coming back to 50-50.

Were Italian Swiss Colony wines all bottled and
labelled?

No.

*Issue of May, 1939-

Ron furl s Wine anil Spirit Circular

Mayor Rossi of San Francisco presents

Tito Schipa. the famous tenor, with a

case of California Tipo

Mayor Angelo Rossi (right; no relation
to the Rossi family of Italian Swiss
Colony) presented raffia-covered bottles
of Tipo wine to tenor Tito Schipa for
this 1934 publicity photograph.

Teiser: Some sold in bulk?

Rossi: Good deal. Most of it.

Teiser: And then went out under other labels?

Rossi: Yes. We had a good reputation. Used to always get
a just a little bit more than the average market.
That s how we kept the name on a high level. My
brother and I were always very particular about that,
and after Repeal, you see.... You see, during
Prohibition, we marketed grapes, grape juices and
grape concentrates under the name Asti Colony and
kert the name alive. And we used to ship the grapes
under Asti Colony. And talking about modern methods
of wine making, whenever we shipped a carload of
grapes, we used to include a certain number of packages,
cartons with four ounces of this potassium meta-
bisulphite, this sulphur dioxide. One package for a
ton of grapes. If there were twelve tons of grapes
in a car, there were twelve packages and we d say to
use one package per ton of grapes. The result was
that those who did that didn t fail to make a good
wine. They d give credit to the grapes. Well,
naturally, the grapes had to be, first of all, good.
But you can make a poor wine out of good grapes. But
if they used the sulphur dioxide, it couldn t fail; Just
couldn t fail.

THE ROSSI TWINS

Teiser: Let s go back then to your own biography. You

graduated from U.S.F. What did you study there?

Rossi: It was Just a liberal course. An academic course.
And then we* went to U.C. and took chemistry and
viticulture and wine making and enology.

Teiser: What year did you go there?

Rossi: 09. We only stayed there one year, but we were

*Edmund A. Rossi and his twin brother, Robert D.
Rossi.

Rossi: fortunate to get a degree out of there. They didn t
want to give us a degree but we managed to wiggle it
out of them. They wanted us to stay two years.

Teiser: Did you work hard?

fiossi: Yes, but you see, we wouldn t have gone back a second
year because my father was anxious to get us in the
business. We got enough out of it so that we were
able to apply what we learnt in Europe very satis
factorily. And, as I say, what we learnt theoretically
and then learnt practically in Europe constituted the
biggest single factor, I think, in the development of
quality table wine in California. Because this pure
culture method of fermentation and sulphur dioxide
was just revolutionary. And they were Just starting
to talk about it in the laboratories in Marseilles
and places even in Europe it wasn t generally accepted.
It was only years later.

Teiser: Had your father heard about it before he left here?

Rossi: Yes. Yes. We had come across it at the University.
My brother and I picked it up at the University.

Teiser: So it was known here but not used.
Rossi: Not used. It was just a new theory.
Teiser: Whom did you work with at the University?

Rossi: Hans Holm. And Professor [Frederic T.] Bioletti,

mostly. Bioletti and Holm in the enology department.

Teiser: That was before Dr. William V. Cruess time?

Rossi: Dr. Cruess was doing post-graduate work there at the
same time at a desk opposite us. We were the same
year.

Teiser: He was in zymology?

Rossi: Yes, well, that s what they call it. Hans Holm was
teaching zymology, the science of fermentation.

Teiser: Did you know Dr. Cruess well?

Rossi: Not well, just...

Teiser: You were all working hard r&gt;robably.

Rossi: Well, he was good. Better than we were.
Teiser: Well, he d been specifically trained.

Rossi: That s just it, you see; we were there only for post
graduate work. We were there to pick up whatever we
could in the way of knowledge so as to apply it
wherever we could in a practical way because we weren t
going to be given that much more time to prepare our
selves. My father was too anxious to get us in the
business, which was fortunate, because that was the
way things happened, that he was killed. We got two
years of experience with him, which we wouldn t have
had if we had continued our studies. And we would
have been at a disadvantage in order to get established,
because when he passed away we were able to carry on
until such time as we were able to sell out and
establish ourselves on a new basis.

Teiser: How long were you in Europe?

Rossi: Oh, just about three or four months. The whole trip
took three and a half months.

Teiser: And you were in France, Algeria....

Rossi: We went to Bordeaux, Algeria.... Algeria was one of
the most interesting things because we were there
for a specific purpose, to learn hovr to make table
wines in a hot climate. And then at Bordeaux we
found out the way they make Bordeaux wines, and in
Paris we found out about the sulphur dioxide methods
and things like that.

Teiser: When did you come back to this country, then?

Rossi: September first.

Teiser: 1909. And you immediately went to work at Asti?

Rossi: Day after I got home.

Teiser: Let me ask, by the by you must have gone to Asti

all through your childhood from San Francisco when
you were a little boy, how did you travel?

Rossi: Train. Northwestern Pacific. Took three and a half,
four hours.

Teiser: Where did you catch the train?

Rossi: Sausalito. Tiburon.

Teiser: You went over on the ferry?

Rossi: To Tiburon first, then Sausalito later.

Teiser: And that was what your father did. every week end?

Rossi: Every week end. That s right. Until the days of

automobile. But even then he used to take the train.

I used to come hone after I got to work, every
other week, you know, spend the week end. I was
bacheloring up there you know, living alone, but I d
come home every other week. But I used to pay strict
attention to business. I had no social life up there
at all except entertaining customers. Otherwise I
had no social life.

Teiser: Didn t go down to Healdsburg?

Rossi: No, very little.

Teiser: Did you know the people at Simi. The Simi brothers?

Rossi: Well, I knew who they were. Fred Haigh, you know.

And his wife*s family. They still have a nice winery
there.

Teiser: The daughter, Vivien, died recently, and Mrs. Haigh s
still running it.*

Rossi: Is that so? There isn t very much left, I don t
think.

Teiser: They still make wine.
Rossi: They do?

Teiser: And four or five years ago the daughter was making
new plantings. They just liked it.

Rossi: Well, it s hard to get away from it.

Teiser: In 1909 then you went to work at Asti, and your

brother went to work in San Francisco, is that right?

Rossi: San Francisco, that s right. [Giulio] Perelli-Minetti
used to take care of Asti and San Francisco. So San
Francisco was without a head. And my father mit my

*The Simi Winery was sold in Kay, 1970, to Russell
H. and Betty Jean Green.

Rossi: brother in charge *

Teiser: And what was your official title?

Hossi: I was superintendent of the winery.

Teiser: How many acres of vineyard did you have around that
winery at that time?

Hossi: Fifteen hundred.

Teiser: Was that good wine grape land?

Hossi: Well, 1*11 put it this way. It was good wine land, but
poor for quantity, in inverse ratio. The higher the
quality, the poorer the crop. But that s just it, you
see; thin soil, but it wasn t irrlgs-ted and it was
awfully difficult to make it pay. But then you got
the quality.

Teiser: How old was your father when he died?
Rossi: Fifty-six. Prime of life.
Teiser: In an accident.

fiossi: Yes. One Sunday morning. He d just finished break
fast. Went down the road. The stableman came with the
horse that he wanted to try out. The horse began to
get skittish, one thing and another, my father got nervous,
went to jump, and he fell on his head. That was it.

Teiser: He was mounted? He was on horseback?
Rossi: No, he was in a little carriage.

Teiser: Well, it was fortunate that you and your brother by
then had had experience.

Rossi: Experience. Yes, it would have been a different story
if we hadn t. Because we were able to carry on, you
know, without my father s management.

TO PROHIBITION

Teiser: It has occurecl to me that 1911 was n year of groat

crisis for nil of you the year of your father s death,
What had your position been in 1909, when you entered
the business?

Rossi: To start with, superintendent of the Asti winery.
Teiser: And you continued in that until 1911?
Rossi: Well, until 1914.

Teiser: I thought that there was some indication that after
your father s death, you had been given broader
responsibilities .

Rossi: Well, I was on my own up there, whereas before I was
under my father.

Teiser: "General superintendent of wineries" I have as your
title after your father s death. I suppose it was
just what you had been before, was it?

Rossi: Well, maybe...! actually did assume greater rest&gt;onsi-
bility because my father was always present to veto
or approve any decision made prior to 1911.

Teiser: Then I came across something about a real estate
dealer named Marcellus Kriegbaum vrho brought suit
about a commission due him in 1911.

Rossi: Yes. That s correct.

Teiser: I wasn t so much interested in the problem of the
suit as the indication of the properties that had
been acquired. You remember about the suit, do you?

Rossi: I remember, in general, that he had brought a suit,
but the details I m not too familiar with.

Teiser: Well, according to a newspaper account, he charged
that California Wine Association and Italian Swiss
Colony were attempting to corner the wine market of
the entire state and control it, and that Italian
Swiss Colony was owned by the California Wine
Association and apparently that had not come out
yet. This was in May, 1911. There was an article
in the San Francisco Call on May 8th, 1911. Apparently,
it had not been made public that...

Rossi: No, no, I guess not. That was before my father died.

Teiser: Yes. William Hanson, secretary of the California

Wine Association, said that it held 50 per cent stock
ownership of Italian Swiss Colony. As you mentioned
earlier.

Rossi: That was correct.

Teiser: But he said that they were not at all in the same
organization so far as marketing went.

Rossi: They were absolutely independent one of the other.
Teiser: Hanson said they were great rivals.
Hossi: They were. Competitors.

Teiser: Kriegbaum was filing suit against your father and

all the other directors of the Italian -American Bank.
He said that he had had an agreement to handle the
sale of several vineyard properties to the California
Wine Association. Then the board of directors of
the Italian-American Bank decided that they would be
sold to Italian Swiss Colony instead, and thus they
avoided paying him his fee, his commission. I suppose
it didn*t come to anything, did it?

Hossi: Apparently not.

Teiser: You would have inherited the problem if it had
continued, wouldn t you?

Rossi: Yes. I think it must have been dropped for some
particular reason. I can t recall the details.

Teiser: The properties were named....
Rossi: Oh? Were they named?

Teiser: Yes, and I thought I d like to ask you about each of
them. There was Mount Diablo Vineyard of 600 acres,
owned by California Consolidated Vineyard Company.

Rossi: Well, I knew that property existed and was bought by
Italian Swiss Colony.

Teiser: I believe they also bought some wine at the same time,
did they?

Rossi: Yes. Well, the Inventory of wine went with the
property.

Teiser: Who had owned that property?
Hossi: I don t know.

Teiser: I think somewhere a name of an earlier owner is given,
T. Froelich.

Rossi: I think he was a director of the California Wine

Association. There was a Mr. Froelich connected with
the California Wine Association. I don t know if
it s the same one, or not.

Teiser: The Mount Diablo Vineyard, where was that located?

Hossi: Clayton.

Teiser: Was it a good vineyard?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: What kind of. grapes?

Rossi: Table wine grapes. They were good quality.

Teiser: Then, the Brookside Vineyard. Doesn t say where that
was.

Rossi: That was near Concord. That was only a vineyard, and
the grapes used to be brought to Clayton, to the
Mount Diablo Winery.

Teiser: Did it have a big capacity?

Rossi: Oh, I think it had nearly a million gallon capacity.
Half a million to a million. More likely half a
million.

Teiser: I was confused about Brookside because that s now
the name that Mr. Philo Biane s winery uses.

Rossi: No connection.

Teiser: Then there was the Bernard Vineyard, 150 acres.

Rossi: I m not familiar with that, at all.

Teiser: And the Portola Vineyard of ?0 acres.

Rossi: I m not familiar with that either. They never owned
it.

Teiser: Well, apparently they were considering buying all
these t

Rossi: They didn t apparently, because I would have known
about it. Brookside I knew x-ras owned by Italian
Swiss Colony, but as far as the Portola and Bernard,
I m not at all familiar.

Teiser: There s another called the Theresa Vineyard of ^4-0
acres.

Rossi: Same way. I don t remember that.

Teiser:

Rossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

The total value of them all was said to be ;p500,000.
I suppose some of them were bought and some were not.

Did that include the winery?

Apparently so. Yes. I was interested in the directors
of the Italian-American Bank. Your father was one and
I suppose had been for many years.

He was vice-president.

And Mr. Pontana. And C.A. Malm. I think his name
has been mentioned.

He was one of the original stockholders of the Italian
Swiss Agricultural Colony.

Was he Italian himself?

No. He was more German than anything else, as I
recall. His family lived on Stelner near Jackson.
They had a home there for many years. They were in
the luggage business.

Mr. Pontana, of course. And then there s A.J. Merle.

A.J. Merle. Well, he was the one that eventually
bought an Interest in the Asti Grape Products Company
that was effective during the Prohibition years.

And Luigi de Martini?

That was the L. de Martini Supply Company, candies
and sweets, wholesale.

And Henry J. Crocker, whom you ve mentioned.

Yes.

And Henry A. Sartori.

Hossi: Dr. Henry J. Sartori, son-in-law of Mr. A. Sbarboro,
president of the Italian -American Bank.

Teicer: And. Ambrose Gherini?

Hossi: My brother-in-law. He married my eldest sister.

Teiser: And Alfred 3. Sbarboro.

Rossi: Mr. A. Sbarboro *s son, who was actually running the
bank . [ Lau^ht er ]

Teiser: And "Rhoma" A. Sbarboro.

Rossi: Romolo A. Sbarboro was a son also of A. Sbarboro.
These were the directors of the bank, you say?

Teiser: In 1911. And most of them had wine interests then?

Rossi: Wine interests and banking interests through Mr.
Sbarboro *s connections.

Teiser: Was a member of your family married to a member of
the Sbarboro family?

Rossi: No. rlo relationship.

Teiser: Who owned major interest in the company at the time of
your father s death?

Rossi: Well, 50 per cent of it was California Wine Association,
The largest individual stockholder was my father.

Teiser: And you continued operating it until....

Rossi: Well, California Wine Association, with Prohibition
coming on in 1918, began selling properties, and
they contemplated selling Asti too, 1919 1920.

Teiser: They had by this time become full owners of it?

Hossi: Oh, yes; 191^ they became full owners.

Teiser: But you were continuing to operate it?

Rossi: I continued to operate it. I was superintendent.

Teiser: You worked with Mr. A.R. Morrow then?

Rossi: Yes, since 191^ I was under Mr. Morrow.

Teiser: What sort of a man was he?

Rossi: Oh, very capable. He was general superintendent and
then becarae general manager. Mr. Pontana was
president of the California Wine Association after
wards. And Mr, Morrow and Mr. Fontana used to work
very closely together, especially during the years
right prior to Prohibition.

Teiser: I keep hearing fron a variety of sources that Mr.
Morrow had very acute taste. Is that right?

Rossi: Oh, yes. Yes. He was a wonderful wine taster.
Teiser: Was he very anxious for high quality?

Rossi: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. He knew the wine business
beautifully.

Teiser: Was he a good business nanager, too?

Rossi: Yes. Yes. I got along very well with him.

Teiser: And your brother too?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Your brother continued in charge here in San Francisco?

Rossi: Yes.

AST I GRAPE PRODUCTS COMPANY AMD THE C.W.A.

Rossi: In 1919 they wanted to sellAsti. And Mr. [Enrico]
Prati and his family (that s explained in some of
the literature) wanted to buy it out on time, and
break it up into 40 acre lots, you see. But before
that tine came, before they made financial arrangements
and all that, and ny brother got back from the First
World War, and he and I went to them and said: well,
you re trying to finance this. It s going to not be
easy for you to do it and instead of eventually
breaking it up, let s form a company and shin grapes,
make grape juices. And we ll heln you to finnnce
this. So we formed the Asti Grar&gt;e Products Company.
And I became president of the Asti Grar&gt;e Products
Company. This was April, 1920.

IKL

Teiser: Who were the other officers of it?

Rossi: Well, for the first few years, my brother was secretary
and vice-president. And Mr. Prati was vice-president
in charge of production. And that s about what it
amounted to for the first few years.

Teiser: Did your headquarters remain in San Francisco, or
were they in Asti at that time?

Rossi: No, I moved to San Francisco.
Teiser: Who was in charge up there then?

Rossi: Prati. He was a director of the company. Then we
later on got the Di Giorgio fruit company, the Earl
Fruit Company, interested. That was nrior to just
prior to Repeal, I guess it was.

Teiser: Yes, I notice there was a Di Giorgio member of the
board of directors. Which Di Giorgio was that?

Rossi: Joseph. He was the president and director of the

Earl Fruit Company. And they owned a 37-1/2 per cent
stock interest.

Teiser: And you were shipping fresh grapes?

Hossi: And making grape juices and grape concentrates.

Teiser: How did you learn how to make concentrates?

Hossi: Oh, well, with a vacuum pan.

Teiser: It was not anything you had done before though?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: Before Prohibition who were your main customers for
bulk wines?

Rossi: Well, you mean, in my father s day?

Teiser: Yes.

Rossi: Oh, everybody. Wholesalers in every town.

Teiser: Would you sell in small quantities?

Rossi: In barrels. Fifty gallon barrels. Eventually in
tank cars.

Teiser: Oh, in tank cars in your father s day?
Rossi: Yes. Mostly barrels, though.
Teiser: But local wholesalers.

Rossi: Yes. In the cities. We used to ship by water in 50
Gallon barrels to New York through the Panama Canal.

Teiser: Did a large r&gt;ercentage of your wines go east?
Hossi: Yes.

Teiser: Then during Prohibition who were the customers for
the grape juices and concentrates?

Hossi: That, see, I had to develop. That was work. That

you had to ferret put, and induce people to get into
it. We sold grapes more easily.

Teiser: But what kind of people were your customers for the
concentrate and juice?

Rossi: Well, it wasn t too heavy a business. It required a
lot of work, detail work. It never amounted to a
big, big business. Grapes were more important.

Teiser: And those were just the grapes from the acreage at
Asti?

Rossi: No, we bought grapes too, neighbors grapes. It was
a risky business. Oh, yes.

Teiser: You must have felt all along, though, that Prohibition
wasn t going to last?

Rossi: Well, we were gambling on that. It was a gamble all
right. Because it took capital all the time, putting
hands in your pocket.

Teiser: You must have felt very loyal to the business to work
that hard and put in that much faith and time and
effort.

Rossi: Yes. Well, that s all we knew.

Teiser: Did you ship many grapes to San Francisco?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Someone told me about the big wineries in apartment
house basements here. Did you know about those?

Rossi: Yes, people used to.... We used to have a plant at
Broadway and Davis, where we*d crush the grapes that
they f d buy and then they d deliver then home in kegs
and ferment then. We did the crushing for then.

Teiser: Did you sell to the scavengers association?

Rossi: No, I didn t.

Teiser: These just went to the individual homes?

Hossi: Yes, family. We had French, German, Italians. I
used to cs.ll on them at home.

Teiser: Did you help them bottle their wines the way Fruit
Industries did?

Hossi: Yes. Well, we had two or three men that did that on
their own.

Teiser: That really was a hard way to market wine, wasn t it?
Rossi: It was.

Edmund A. Rossi
January 13, 1971

Photograph by Ruth Teiser

(Interview #2 - June 11, 1969)

[A copy of a list of California Wine Association
stockholders as of February 23, 191? (from the
Association s Minute Books in the library of the
California Historical Society) was left with Mr.
Rossi to look at following the first interview. ]

Rossi: I looked at the stockholders list of the California
Wine Association and there wasn t anything of
particular interest. I recognized the directors
because I served on the board of directors after my
father died. He d been a member of the board of
directors of the California Wine Association, so
after he died, they made me one.

Teiser: That was the time they were liquidating the properties
though?

Rossi: Even before. Even before, because....
Teiser: 1911?

Rossi: 1911 they weren t.... The threat of Prohibition wasn t
imminent enough. It was only four or five years later
that they made up their minds they would start
liquidating some of their properties.

Teiser: Did you have anything to do with Winehs.ven?

Rossi: My only contact was I used to go over there to the
board of directors meetings. The official home.

Teiser: Was it a very good winery?

Rossi: It was a practical winery. It was a large, sprawling
plant, and they had big capacity for storage. Used
to go over there in a schooner that they owned.

Teiser: From San Francisco?
Rossi: San Francisco, yes.

Teiser: That was really going to a directors meeting in
style!

Rossi: Well, they used to bring wine over from Winehaven to
San Francisco.

Teiser: Oh, the schooner had a practical purpose.
Hossi: Oh, yes.

Teiser: I guess it was easier to ship in it than on the
railroad?

Rossi: I suppose so.
reiser: Was it a big boat?
Hossi: Mo.

Teiser: So you were a member of the board of directors during
the period of liquidation. And that was how you knew
immediately when they decided to sell the Asti
property.

Yes. Well, not only that, but I was superintendent
of Asti at that time.

So you knew it from both points of view?
Yes.

Did they offer you the first chance at it? Or did

you simply. . .

Ho. No, I had been atroroached, I guess, by Mr. Prati
and his family. I helped him begin negotiating the
details of the proposed purchase and sale, and that s
how I knew that the proposed buyers had in mind to
subdivide the property, because that was about the
only thing they could do on their own. That s when
my brother and I offered to establish a business
shipping grapes and making grape concentrates and
grape juices.

Teiser: Was there someone else interested in it?
fiossi: No. Just Mr. Prati *s in-laws.

Teiser: Tell me a little bit about Mr. Prati. Where did he
come from?

Hossi: I think it was Rome. His family I think came from

Rome. He was a very energetic fellow, very energetic,
full of vitality and ambition.

Hossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser: How did he happen to come to Italian Swiss Colony?

Teiser: Do you know?

Rossi: His older "brother had preceded him. And his older
brother went down to South America. I think he had
another brother down there in the Argentine. Because
that s where he lived the rest of his life. In the
Argentine.

Teiser: What had the brother done?

Rossi: Well, he d been the foreman of the vineyards.

Teiser: Do you remember his first name?

Rossi: Olinto. And Mr. Prati, our partner, was Enrico.

Teiser: About when did he come then?

Rossi: Enrico Prati? The same day my brother and. I went to
work, first of September, 1909.

Teiser: Just by chance?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Was he a contemporary of yours? About the same age?

Rossi: About the same age.

Teiser: And what was his first job there?

Rossi: Sub-foreman under his brother.

Teiser: I see, and he worked his way up through....

Rossi: Up through. That s right.

Teiser: So between 1911 and. 1920, he must have gathered some
capital if he had been interested in buying the
property; is that right?

Rossi: Well, it was mostly he was depending on his in-laws
I guess. His in-laws owned the winery and the
vineyard two miles south of Asti. Good vineyard.

Teiser: Who were they?

Rossi: Seghesio.

Teiser: Did it have a name?

Rossi: No, no. Seghesio vineyard. Seghesio winery. The
old man, Mr. Pratl s father-in-law,* he used to be
one of the original laborers at the vineyard when it
was established. At the Asti vineyards when they
were established.

Teiser: And then he went and established his own?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: And he had done well enough to help his son-in-law...

Rossi: He had died by that time. It was the mother-in-law
that had a good business head. Eventually she sold
out her interest though because, being very con
servative, they were always afraid of debts, borrowing,
loans. So a third cousin of mine bought out their
interest. A.J. Merle. He was a man that was well-to-
do, retired.

Teiser: Didn t take an active part in the business?

Rossi: Just a director of our company, Asti Grape Products
Company.

Teiser: Under what terms did you buy it from California Wine
Association? Did you have to give them all cash?
Or were you able to pay it off

Rossi: We paid it off. Mr. Prati couldn t have done it.

That s why we suggested to him that we, my brother and
I, get an interest in a property as we set it up, e.
corporation. $240,000, I think we originally put up.

Teiser: It was a lot of money for that time.

Rossi: It was. $60,000 apiece. Originally, I think, it was
$200,000. $50,000 apiece. Then we went up to $60,000
apiece, four of us.

Teiser: That was the initial payment?

Rossi: That was the initial and final payment.

Teiser: Oh, that was the total. How long did it take you to
pay it off then?

Rossi: Oh, not too long.

Teiser: That was quite an enterprise for a group of young men,

*Edoardo Seghesio

Teiser: wasn t it? In a period that wasn t exactly....
Hossi: We were banking on Repeal. Big chance. A big chance.

Teiser: How did it happen in 192^- that the matter came up of
getting back the Italian Swiss Colony name?

Rossi: Well, because those first four or five years following
Prohibition, Italian Swiss Colony wasn t operating as
a corporation. Business being done was one of
liquidation. And at that time, as I suppose even
today, you had to pay franchise tax, annual franchise
tax, and they weren t using the facilities and name
of the company, Italian Swiss Colony, so they decided
to disincorporate.

Teiser: The decision was made by California Wine Association?

Rossi: That s right. California Wine Association. And I
was on the board of directors and I knew what was
doing. And Mr. Morrow, and Mr. Fontana, who was then
president of the California Wine Association, both
felt that the Rossi family connections were entitled
to use the name if anybody was. And as they weren t
going to use it, we changed our name.

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

You continued on the board of the California Wine
Association for some time then?

Well, I might have continued... Oh, yes, I did
continue because they changed the name afterwards to
Calwa Corporation. And I \flas still on the board of
the California Wine Association.

Did you have some shares in it, too?

Yes. I notice that I m on the list of stockholders.

Oh, yes, that s one of 1917, isn t it. I was
interested in that list of stockholders because so
many people who had no direct connection with the
wine business seem to have bought shares.

Well, it was on the market, in the stock exchange.
It was listed.

I think your father s estate is represented.

372 shares, estate of Pietro Carlo Hossi, on one of
the lists. I don t know what particular year this was,

Teiser: 1917* Do you think some of the other people had

bought into it because they just wanted to support
a California enterprise?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: They just went In it because it was a good investment?

Rossi: It was strictly a business deal. One of the biggest
stockholders was E.S. Pillsbury, the attorney. He
was the attorney for the California Wine Association.

Teiser: How did he happen to own so many shares?

Hossi: Well, he took a very active interest following

Prohibition. During the liquidation of the California
Wine Association, he took a very active interest. lie
was a very shrewd man. I remember this is rather
comical. He used to inveigh against telephone bills.
He had a particular grir&gt;e against mounting telephone
bills, long distance calls. In other Words, he
figured that quite a few calls could be supplanted
by correspondence. Mr. Korrow felt that the telephone
was handy to get a decision fast and put the matter
out of your mind. It was rather amusing because at
board of directors meeting he used sometimes to bring
this matter uo.

Teiser: Was the Crocker Bank represented there among the

stockholders? Some other banking families were, I
thought, but perhans they weren t prominantly
represented.

Rossi: Well, there s a stockholder here by the name of
Charles H. Crocker. 850 shares.

Teiser: But they didn t take an active part in the nanagement?

Rossi: No, oh, no. There was nobody on the board of directors
during ray time by the name of Crocker. Those that 1
do remember were C.O. G. Miller. He was quite a stock
holder.

Teiser: Was he active in the organization?

Hossi: Very active.

Teiser: What did he do?

Rossi: He was quite active. He...

Teiser: Took Dart in the board s decisions?

Rossi: That s it. M.J. Pontana x-jas a big stockholder.

Teiser: So you continued to participate in the affairs of
the California Wine Association for some time?

Rossi: Well, I was close to the management. And district
manager for Napa and Sonoma counties.

Teiser: Were you involved in it later when it became r&gt;art of
Fruit Industries?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: By then you had ceased connections?

Rossi: Yes. Oh, yes.

PROHIBITION PERIOD ACTIVITIES

Teiser: Someone mentioned to me the Pioli Brothers....

Rossi: Well, they were old-time employees prior to Prohibition
up at Asti.

Teiser: Why vrere they of interest?

Rossi: Well, one of the two brothers lived in San Francisco
and was well known among the Italians, and so we had
him as a salesman for our grapes that we brought
during the years of Prohibition to San Francisco
market. And he was our salesman.

Teiser: What was his first name?

Rossi: Astolfo. The other brother used to be housekeeper
for me for a while when I lived up at Astl as a
bachelor.

Teiser: What was his name, do you remember?

Rossi: rto, I don t remember.

Teiser: Worked in the winery, did he?

Rossi: i lo. Wo. In later years he retired to a oronerty ur&gt;

Bossi: in Sonoma County up around Healdsburg, one of the
valleys around Healdsburg.

Teiser: Perhaps it was the one in San Francisco who was
known.

Hossi: Yes. He was connected with our selling of grapes in
San Francisco market for quite a few years. And
then he used to also helu make the wine out of grape
juice that.... People used to buy the grape juice
in barrels from us and Mr. Pioli used to go to their
house and see that it fermented right.

Teiser: What facilities did you maintain in San Francisco
through these years?

Hossi: Well, during the Prohibition era we built a corrugated
iron building and office at the end of Broadway,
where we put up a crushing plant.

Teiser: You mean near the waterfront?

Hossi: Waterfront. See, we brought the grapes into the San
Francisco market on the waterfront, and then t&gt;eople
who bought their grapes from us or from others would
bring them over to our plant if they wanted. And we
supplied the crushing facilities and the containers
for home delivery. We d lend them the containers.
They were 15 or 20 gallon barrels with handles on
them so they could dump them into their barrels or
tanks at home. In the case of white grapes, we d
press the grape juice out of it. In the case where
they were going to make red wine, we d just crush
their grapes and deliver the pulp and everything except
the stems. We maintained the plant all through the
years of Prohibition, those 12 years, in San Francisco.

Teiser: How did you ship your grapes down? By railroad?

Hossi: Yes. Sold them right off of the tracks. That s where
Pioli came in because he used to make his headquarters
in the particular cars of grapes that we were selling.

Teiser: I see; sold just right out of the cars.

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Had you offices, too, in San Francisco, at that tine?

Hossi: Yes.

Teiser: Where were they?

Rossi: Well, for a while there, we were at 216 Pine Street.
Prior to that, we were at 12 Geary.

Teiser: Had you earlier had any storage facility in San
Francisco? Before Prohibition?

Hossi: Oh, yes. Had it on Greenwich Street. There we had
a million gallon capacity. That f s a building that
my father put up.

Teiser: Is it still standing?

Rossi: Still standing. Battery and Greenwich. Went through
the fire.

Teiser: Did you use it for storage, or blending, or...?

Rossi: Both. Mostly for in-and-out though. Delivery by
boat to eastern markets.

Teiser: What year was it built, about?

Rossi: Oh, I think it was around 1903 or *04.

Teiser: And did you then dispose of it at the time of
Prohibition?

Hossi: Well, at that time, we belonged to the California
Wine Association, and they disposed of it.

Teiser: Over the period of Prohibition, did you plant any

varieties of grapes that ship well instead of those
that specifically make good wine?

Rossi: No. No. We had the wine grapes, the real wine grapes
at Asti in Sonoma County that made the best wine.

Teiser: Were you able to ship those grapes well during

Prohibition? Or didn t you ship them as far as some
others did?

Rossi: We shipped them all over. One of our principal

markets was San Francisco though. We did ship to
Chicago and to New York and eventually to those who
represented our wine business in New York, Gambarelli
& Davit to. They were eventually bought out by the
National Distillers Corporation, but they were our

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:
Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

representatives in New York that we trusted implicitly.
We gave then a lot of credit. I may say we always
shipped them on open account. And they saw us through
bad times too. They saved many a precarious situation
for us back in the New York market when grapes went
to pieces in prices and it was almost difficult to
get the freight money out of it. So they eventually
put the fresh grapes in storage. And we were fortunate
there too because the storage peonle trusted them and
eventually they got every last dollar that was coming
to them, but it took sometimes maybe three or four
years before we completely oaid off the storage
charges.

It must have been a gamble.

It was because Gambarelli & Davitto would buy new
barrels and take the fresh grapes out of boxes to
be shipped in and put them in barrels and put the
barrels in cold storage and freeze them solid, kee-n
them for years two or three years sometimes before
they liquidated the inventory.

Did other people do that, or were .they...?
No, they were the only ones that did it.
Did it work well?

It worked well because it saved the situation for us.
We were able to pay off all the storage charges and
keep the name alive.

And the grapes were perfectly usable after?

Yes. We had put in sulfur dioxide. There again....
I talked to you about that the last time.

Yes. That held them stable.

That held them, yes.

Then what would they do when they took it out of

Home-made wine.

They crushed the frozen grapes as they took them out
of storage?

Yes. That really was a venture. That was a real

Teiser:
Rossi :

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Rossi: venture. And Gambarelli Davitto did that for us.
It was essential that we trusted them, because if
we hadn t they d have sacrificed and dunroed the
grapes and we d have got nothing out of it. They
were honest.

V/hat varieties of grapes were these?

They were good grapes. Zinfandels, Carignanes,
Petite Sirahs. They were excellent wine grapes.

And you continued in association with Gambarelli &
Davitto until 19^2, was it?

Well, yes, because they handled our wine after Repeal.
Who were the principals in Gambarelli & Davitto?

Originally Miss [Victoria] Ganbarelli, who had been
secretary to V. Langnann; she made a connection with
[Bernard] Davitto, and they acquired V. Langmann &
Company.

Teiser: What did you people in the wine industry drink durinr
Prohibition? Did you use your 200-gallon family
allowance?

Rossi: [Laughter] Not the 200 gallons because that was quite
a bit. But we did make a certain limited amount out
of the grape juice and grape concentrate.

Teiser: In your home?

Rossi: Ho.... Oh, yes! Oh, it had to be in your own home.

Teiser: Was it good? Could you make good wine at home?

Rossi: Oh yes. If you knew how, you know. You had to know
the techniques.

Teiser: What about the power of gangsters in the industry
here during Prohibition?

Rossi: Well, in California, we personally did not have any
contact with them or any disturbances with them.

Teiser: Wo winery in California?

Rossi: Well, I wouldn t say. I said, our own. Oh, there s
no doubt that there was n lot of illegal trnffic in

Rossi: alcoholic beverages, wine included. But they didn t
worry so much about the wine end of it, you know.
It was mostly stronger liquor that was popular.

Teiser: I had understood that there were some gangs that got
wine from some of the wineries. This is not familiar
to you?

Rossi: Ho, I m not familiar with it. No, the only thins is
that quite a few of the wineries had connections with
people that would supply sacramental permits, or
medicinal permits.

Teiser: Did any of the California wineries make brandy during
Prohibition that you know of?

Hossi: Well, they made brandy because they made sacramental
wines, sweet wines, and they had to have brandy for
these sweet wines. Fortified wines.

INDUSTRY ORGANIZATIONS AND THE PRORATE

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

There s been much discussion of the California
Vineyardists Association.

Donald Conn was manager. My brother opposed joining
California Vinej^ardists Association.

Why?

Wanted to be independent. And we did maintain our
independence, fortunately. Because eventually they
went out of business. And we still maintained our
identity. So my brother was right.

If you had gone into it, what would you have had to
do? Was it that tight an association that you would
not have been able to operate your own way?

I think so.

Why? Because of price controls?

No. No. Nothing of that type, I don t think. Well,
we remained small and independent. I think that
Fruit Industries became a r&gt;art of it.

Teiser: A lot of vineyardists became a part of it, and I
thought I saw that Italian Swiss Colony had a
contract with it in 1930.*

Rossi: It might be.

(Interview #3 - June 20, 1969)

Teiser: Did you consider Fruit Industries an important factor
in the Industry in the early 1930 f s?

Rossi: Oh, yes.

Teiser: I guess Walter Taylor came in about then, didn t he?

Rossi: Have you talked to Walter Taylor?

Teiser: No, I haven t. Do you think I should?

Rossi: Well, he was well-posted, especially in Donald Conn s
day. He came out of George West and Sons, too, I
think. He could give you a slant on him, on George
West. He [Taylor] was active in the ind.ustry. He
spoke for Fruit Industries, always.**

Teiser: I ve seen articles by him on the wine industry from
the point of view of Fruit Industries. Were his
ideas sound from, say, your point of view? He had
definite ideas on marketing, I think.

Rossi: Well, he was a little inclined to be critical of

things. I don t know that he was always right though,
[Laughter] I mean, whether he carried his weight is
another thing.

Teiser: He was very strong for stabilization programs, was he
not?

Rossi: He was.

Teiser: And there were those of you who were not?

*Under "Miscellaneous County Acreage Holders,"
Membership List. California Vineyardists Association,
August 15, 1930, in Wine Institute library.

**Mr. Taylor declined the Regional Oral History Office s
invitation to be included in the wine industry inter
view series.

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi :
Teiser:

Rossi:

That s right. Have you ever gotten a slant from
Mario Perelli-Iiinetti?

Not Mario, no; his father.

He d be more likely to give you a better slant than
his father. Because he was managing Fruit Industries.

Has the industry, in your experience, been s
between those who wanted heavy cooperation and those
who wanted to be independent?

Oh, I don t think there was an out-and-out program
set out by anyone in particular. They took up these
problems as they came up, without being Just adamant
about their viewpoints.

I believe the last attempt at a stabilization program
was the so-called set-aside, which people apparently
felt strongly for and against.

Well, there, that was one instance where they did feel
strongly one way or the other.

Why did those in favor, favor it? And why did those
who felt they disliked it, dislike it?

I suppose those that didn t have distribution and
outlets maybe felt they were in a better position to
acquire them than if they were restricted to certain
operations.

Those who had less were less willing to be restricted?

Thai

right.

it s interesting that with all the attempts at
organisation there s never been any really tight
single control.

No, there hasn t been anything in the way of a, you
might say, real anti-trust operation. The government
did get after the industry, and I think rather unfairly--
I mean, it wasn t well-founded, the accusation although
the industry had to rather give in to the government
viewpoint. I felt that it didn t have a solid basis
in fact. So that you re right when you say that they
didn t have any solid program of control.

Teiser: What was the r&gt;oint at issue?

Rossi: That they were forming one of these control programs
to really control.

Telser: When was that?

Rossi: In the early *K) s maybe or the late 30 s.

Teiser:. I suppose the prorate was about the only thing that
cut right through the industry.

Rossi: Well, the people were for prorate, I think, as a rule.
That seemed to have worked out all right.

Teiser: Did you know Donald Conn?

Rossi: Yes, I knew him.

Teiser: What kind of a man was he?

Rossi: Very... Well, he was a promoter. He had been an

employee of the Railroad Associations of America, and
he was a fine r&gt;ronoter when it came to that, you know.
No doubt about that. And he was instrumental in
forming this California Vineyardists Association.

Teiser: Did you ever hear that Hr. Hoover was somehow in
favor of it?

Rossi: No. I don t know if it was because...! think Mr.

Hoover s family had a vineyard in the Fresno country.
The sons particularly had a vineyard; raisin business.

Teiser: Whose interests did you feel Mr. Conn had at heart?

Rossi: Oh, I don t think anybody s in particular. I think

it was just a question that he wanted to get everybody
in it so as to have a big organization. I don t think
he had any other interest than that [laughter]. You
know, a promoter always wants everybody to go along
with it, and he was a promoter.

Teiser: It was said that it was an attempt to establish an
orderly marketing system.

Rossi: Well, that might have been.

Teiscr: But you ircmted to market on your own?

Rossi: Well, we always more or less went our independent way.

Teisers

Rossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:
reiser:

Rossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

The California Vineyardists Association was
instrumental in getting a loan from vjas it the
Federal Farm Board ?

Yes.

For Fruit Industries. Do you remember something of

that?

Yes, I think so. I think Perelli-Hinetti s family
vjas connected with then at that tine.

It seems to me that organization, Fruit Industries,
generated so much heat I

Yes.

[Laughter]

Another thing that s been said, and perhaps you have
some thoughts on this, was that Mr. Harry A Caddow
was an associate in some way of Mr. Conn....

Yes.

...and that the Wine Institute developed somewhat
from. . .

No, that wasn t so. The Wine Institute is the result
and successor of a couple of other organisations that
preceded it, whose origin I was partly responsible
for.

Could you tell about it?

Because in October, 1932, just a year or so prior to
Repeal, I joined, with about six or eight others in
the wine industry of California to form the G-rane
Growers League of California, among whom were J3.Ii.
Sheehan, who was a vineyardist near Sacramento I
think. Among others were the de Latour vineyards
represented by a gentleman named St. Amant,* who was
vice-president of Beaulieu Vineyards, and Mr. Horace
Lanza, and Henry Koater of the California Barrel
Company. The first week of December, 1932, we went
back to Washington to meet with our attorney that we
had hired, by the name of Marion de Tries, Judge

*V7.L. St. Ana-it.

Rossi: I larion de Vries. And we got quite a "bit of publicity
on it because at that time they were trying to
liberalize the Prohibition law so as to nermit the
sale of wine as being non-intoxicating in fact; that
was our argument. Eventually, we appeared before the
Ways and Mea.ns Committee and strangely enough it s
still the same head of the Ways and Means Committee
today

Teiser: Who was that?

Rossi: Mills.* I think he was a member of the committee.
And I appeared and gave a talk on the chemistry of
wine making to explain to the committee what wine
really was. Mr. Lanza gave a talk on some other,
legal r&gt;hase of it I think it was. And Mr. St. Amant
on some other phase of it. But this little group of
us constituted the high-sounding name of Graoe Growers
League of California. And we hired Harry Caddow as
our manager. So he went way back too. I don t know
whether Harry Caddow went to Washington with us, but
we put him on our payroll, a small salary because vre
were just organizing. I think we originally put up
$500 apiece personally to form this organization.
Then eventually that became the Western Wine Producers
Association, and eventually that was changed into the
Wine Institute. That s the beginning of the Wine
Institute.** It s an outcome of the original Grape
Growers League of California. We appeared on December
6, 7, 8, 1932. We got a review in the New York
Times. It was reported. It s in the Congressional
Record.***

Teiser: What effect did it have, your appearing before that
committee, in the long run, do you think?

Rossi: Well, it kept the wine industry of California before
the public. We were trying to prove to this
Congressional committee, Ways and Means Committee,
that in the way wine was normally consumed, in wine

*Wilbur D. Mills.
**See also pp. 77-79-

***See: U.S. Congress, House Ways and Means

Committee. Prohibition. Modification of Volstead
Act. Hearings. 1932. Y^.W36:V83.

Rossi: drinking countries, it wasn t intoxicating in fact

because they consumed it with food, so that it didn t
have the same effect. That was the argument that
the beer x)eot&gt;le used back there before the same
committee, and they won out because they were allowed
to sell for a limited number of years 3*2 per cent
beer as being non-intoxicating in fact. We Tinted to
try to get wine in the same classification as long
as it didn t have more than 12 per cent alcohol,
table wine. We weren t plugging for dessert wines,
fortified wines; we were just trying to get table
wines defined as being non- intoxicating in fact.

Teiser: It seems to me Dr. Maynard Joslyn mentioned an attempt
to produce 3-2 per cent wines.

Rossi: We did. Asti Grape Products Company through Mr. Prati
did actually nroduce 32 ner cent wine. It was quite
palatable.

Teiser: What grapes did you make it out of?

Rossi: Well, we had to dilute it, you know.

Teiser: How did you stabilize it?

Rossi: It was carbonated, I think.

Teiser: Did Dr. Joslyn say you sold it through Mission Dry
Conroany?

Rossi: Maybe for a while.

Teiser: Did you sell it under your own label for a time?

Rosai: Yes. We sold it under our own label. It didn t last
very long though.

Teiser: Sounds like a pleasant beverage.

Rossi: It was pleasant. It was a good substitute for what
you couldn t get. Yes, it was a good substitute.
I v lr. Prati was responsible for it.

Teiser: Back to your organization, how did you hannen to know
Mr. Gaddow?

Rossi: I don t know whether it was because of connections

with i-ir. Leon Adams of the Pacific Advertising staff

Rossi:

T eiser:

Rossi:

Telser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

that did some promotion work for us at that time...
Might have been through Mr. Adams because Mr. Adams
was so many years connected with the wine industry
under Gaddow that it might have been a personal
acquaintance there. Mr. Caddow came out of the
railroad business, too. He was an agent in the San
Joaquin Valley. Employee of Southern Pacific in some
town in the San Joaquin Valley, I think.

Mr. Adams had been down there, hadn t he?
I don t know.

He told me that he worked on a newspaper in Fresno
for a few years.

Well, his partner in the Pacific Advertising staff
was Bob Smith. Robert L. Smith. -We hired Mr. Adams
in 1932 at the time I went east to appear before the
Washington committee. I remember Mr. Adams was
trying to build my image up [laughter]. He had
charge of the advertising and public relations work
at the time that Repeal came, and i&lt;re made a shipment
of a trainload of wine to market.

And he got a good deal of publicity for it?

Oh, yes. Yes, that was his first contact with wine
was through me. Yes. He s done very well.

Teiser: He s a very articulate spokesman.

Rossi: Well, he knows what he s talking about. He s learnt
authentic information. So whatever he writes in his
books is pretty authentic.

Teiser: How did you and Mr. Lanza happen to get together in
the Grape Growers League? You come from quite
different segments of the wine industry.

Rossi: Well, might have been that he was making grape

concentrate up at Ukiah. At that time I think he
might have been connected with the Tribunos and
Victor Renetto, that winery in Ukiah that they
acquired. Mr. Lanza had come out from western New
York state, from Predonia, I think it was.

Teiser: Mr. Repetto is still in this area.

Rossi: 1 was with hin last night. We attended our annual

Rossi: meeting of an Italian cultural club we both belong
to.

Teiser: He s no longer in the wine business at all?

Hossi: Mo, he s retired. I think he sold out to the
Tribunes.*

Teiser: Did you? organization then work toward Repeal from
1932 on?

Rossi: Well, we cot Repeal within a year after that.
Teiser: Oh, yes, of course.

Hossi: We were trying to break in again ahead of the official
declaration of Repeal.

Teiser: You knew it was coining?
Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Had Hoover ever indicated that he was in favor of
Repeal ?

Rossi: IIo, it was Alfred Smith. Hoover called it the noble
experiment. I don t think he had anything to do with
Repeal.

Teiser: You were really paving the way for the transition to
Repeal?

Rossi: Oh yes. We sow the light, at that tine, between

Roosevelt and Al Smith that eventually Repeal would
be a fact.

REPEAL TO 194-2

Teiser: What did you do at hone with Italian Swiss Colony?
What moves did you make to take advantage of the
coming Repeal?

*Hr. Rer&gt;etto was subsequently interviewed in thin
series.

Rossi:

Teiser:
HOG si:
Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser!
Hossi :
Teicer;
Hossi:

Teiser:
Rossi :

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:
Teiser:

Well, we began to acquire some wines in the way of
fortified wines because we were in the dry wine
district, Sonoma County at Asti; we hadn t acquired
a winery down at Fresno as yet. We eventually
acquired the La Palona Winery, which belonged to
M.F. Tarpey and Sons. We bought that. My brother
was instrumental in getting that deal through.

That s the one at Clovis, is that right?
Yes.

What was the history of that winery? Had it been
started before Prohibition?

Well, yes, 1912, I think.

Who was Tarpey?

Well, it was a well-known family in California.
Democratic background. He had a brother by the name
of Paul Tarpey. Brother or first cousin. V/e used to
do business with Paul Tarpey in the way of buying
wines from others, getting ready for Repeal, because
we didn t make wine during the 12 years of Prohibition,

You didn t carry any over?

We only carried over some dry table wine.

Did. you carry over much?

Oh, I don t know. We had 100,000 gallons or 200,000
gallons, something like that.

Did it come through all right?

Well, we eventually used it. Eventually we blended
it up with new wine.

You must have talc en good care of it.
Yes.

You maintained your cooperage in good shape all
through?

That s right.

That must have taken a lot of work and a lot of faith.

Rossi: It was a gamble.

Teiser: So you started buying some sweet wines. What else
did you do? Did you add to your facilities or did.
you reconstruct any, or were you all ready to go?

Rossi: Well, we were ready to go.

Teiser: You must have increased your capacity?

Rossi: Yes, we increased our Well, we acquired this
La Paloma Winery.

Teiser: Did you acquire Shewan-Jones , too?

Rossi: No. That was afterwards. That was National Distillers
that acquired Shewan-Jones.

Teiser: After they acquired your company?

Rossi: Yes. Well, no, maybe they acquired Shewan-Jones
later. But about the same time.

Teiser: La Paloma then you operated?

Rossi: We operated. We did a big job down there because we
put in big redwood tanks and cement tanks.

Teiser: How large a capacity did it have?

Rossi: I think we built it up to about two million gallons.

Teiser: And how great a capacity did you build up at Asti?

Rossi: I don t know. I think that went to seven or eight
million gallons.

Teiser: What was it just before Prohibition?

Rossi: Well, we didn t really increase the capacity very
much at Asti. What we did was before Prohibition.
Because we put in the first cement tanks that were
built in California, storage tanks.

Teiser: Were they lined?

Rossi: No. There were only one or two tanks that were lined.
With glass. But we treated them with silicate. And
that closed the pores, but there was no particular
lining. They use steel a great deal now.

Teiser: VJhat was the tank up there known as the biggest wine
vat in the world?

Rossi: That was, yen, 300,000 gallon tank.

Peiser: When was that put in?

Rossi: 97, I think. 1897.

Teiser: What material was that?

Rossi: Cement.

Teiser: That was the first cement one?

Rossi: Yes. This was underground.

Teiser: Whose idea was that? Your father s?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Why underground? Cool?

Rossi: Cool, I guess. At that time, you see, there was a
big crop, and the company didn t have money to r&gt;ay
cash for it, so they just offered these facilities.
After they got promises of delivery, they went ahead
and built the underground tank. It s been used all
the time.

Teiser: Still?

Rossi: Oh, yes.

Teiser: Not still the biggest in the world, I suppose.

Rossi: Well, it s been divided up into three sections now.

Teiser: What kind of wine is it used for?

Rossi: Red wine. Red table wine.

Teiser: A blended wine?

Rossi: Yes. Although eventually I don t know that we didn t
use it for port, things like that, you know, but I
think it was mostly for red table wine.

Teiser: ilost of your cooperage, though, was redwood?

Rossi: Redwood.

Teiser: Large and small, both?

Rossi: Mostly large. Comparatively large.

Teiser: What size is that?

Rossi: 15,000 to 40,000.

Teiser: Who supplied your cooperate? Any one company, or...?

Rossi: Well, there -was a firm by the name of Heger & Conroany,
I think it was. Well, that might have been the
manager s name. I forget the official title of the
company. I think they did most of the work.

Teiser: Who supplied your equipment?

Rossi: Healdsburg Machine Shop.

Teiser: Did they supply you with a good deal?

Rossi: Well, that was before the days of the Valley corroany*
down at Fresno. The Healdsburg Machine Shop. One of
the earliest in northern California.

Teiser: I ve heard the name of the peonle who owned it, and
I can t remember.

Rossi: Scalione was one. Ferrari. He s still alive. He s
an old man. Those are the two names I remember.
There were three in the firm.**

Teiser: Someone suggested that we interview Mr. Ferrari.

I suppose he would have a long memory of the industry.

Rossi: Yes. He s still active. Someone said he was still

very much around. I once in a while go up to a dinner
that the local association gives in Sonoma County, and
he s generally there.

Teiser: Was his company an important factor in the wine industry?

* Valley Foundry and Machine Works.
**Cesare Rafanelli, Mario Scalione, and Abele Ferrari.

Rossi:
Teiser:
Hossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
iiossi :
Teiser:
Hossi:

Teiser:
iiossi:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Oh, not to that extent.

Did you make any of your own equipment there at Asti?

Ho ... no .

Where did you set your corks in the first days following
ReiDeal?

Oh, I guess local sur&gt;t&gt;lierf
Portugal and Smin.

I used to get thera from

Was there a rood supply?

Oh, I think so.

Now, I understand, it s not easy to get good corks.

Well, they don t use them much. They don t use corks
very much. Use caps.

Was there any problem of getting good bottles at
first?

l. : o. Well, there was in the Tipo bottles, the Tipo
Chianti bottles.

eiser: Those were to your own special mold, were they?

V/ell, we used to import them originally. My father
imported those from Italy. Straw covers. From
Florence and Fiesole. And then at the time of the
Second World War, Mussolini put an embargo on the
export of these flasks. He thought we were pirating
to use his bottles to put out a wine that competed
with an Italian wine. So Mr. Prati had to become
ingenious and develop a substitute. We got Owens-
Illinois to make the bottle. First we tried to get
it out of Mexico, but they were so un-unifom, you
couldn t depend on them.

You were using filling machines by then?

Yes. So Mr. Prati got Owens-Illinois to supply the
botblc. He got Zellerbach Par&gt;er Companjr to su-o-oly
was it Zellerbach Paner Company? Anyhow, there vias
somebody who supplied o. substitute for the straw,
and there was cellophane wran and a plastic base.
So that we had just as fine a looking, attractive
package as we had previoti.sly imported from Italy.

reiser: So when you went "back into the business of wine

making with great relief I m sure then you said,
that the Di Giorgio interests came in. Did they
Give you capital for getting back in?

Rossi: Well, what happened was they gave us a million and
a half gallons, I think it was, of fortified wines.

Teiser: Where did they get it?

Rossi: They produced it. They had a winery down there at
Balcersfield. Delano. So we used to ~buy originally
from him. But then you got into bigger quantities,
and Di Giorgio didn t have an outlet for his surplus
grapes, so he d make wine with it, but he didn t have
an outlet for it, so we went to him and offered to
give him an interest in the company if he d supply
the wine to us. Well, it worked out all right for
him because afterwards we sold out at a good r&gt;rofit
and he made a good profit on his stock.

Teiser: Did you bring in any other new interests or -neople
at that time?

Rossi: Well, I got my own family to, yes. Well, they came
in ahead of Di Giorgio. Di Giorgio was the last to
come in. When we saw Repeal coming, and this was in
Prohibition days still, we sold a minority interest
to the son of one of my sisters and to Mr. Sbarboro s
family, some of Mr. Sbarboro s family.

Teiser: They wanted to come back into the company?

Rossi: Well, it was on a limited scale. Di Giorgio was a

pretty substantial block. A 37-1/2 t&gt;er cent interest.

Teiser: And the members of your family, then, held the rest?

Rossi: And Prati, of course. We were on a sort of 50-50
basis with the Prat is and the Seghesios.

Teiser: Then, as I remember, your own label became very strong
during the thirties.

Rossi: Well, it had a good reputation.
Teiser: Were you supplying bulk wines, too?
Rossi: We were supr&gt;lying bulk wines mostly.

Teiser: But you must have built up your own label considerably.

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Well, yes. And we d always get a little bit more
than the average market for quality and our reputation,
Italian Swiss Colony is now the principal brand that
United Vintners features.

You continued shit&gt;ping to New York, Gambarelli &
Davitto. . .

Mostly Hew York and the eastern seaboard, and a little
bit in Chicago. We had our own office in Chicago.

This is a general industry question: During those
years immediately following Repeal, I remember there
was a good deal of to-do about wineries which had
borrowed money from banks (maybe just against current
expectations, not long capital loans) having their
wines forced onto the market young.

Oh, I don t think there was any particular difficulty
about that. I think it was probably the first years
after Repeal that you didn t have capable winesakers.

Did all the people from the University come around
then...

Oh, yes.

Did they help you?

Oh, yes.

Did they also get you to help theni and to give them
information that they had, in effect, forgotten?

No, they really hadn t forgotten particularly.
Because [William V.] Cruess was always there and
Cruess knew the score. It was Cruess who was the
principal man at the University and Cruess knew the
score.

Dr. Maynard Joslyn was with him a great deal.
Shortly af terwards . Cruess I think was the first.

What kind of help did you need at the time that they
could give you?

Well, I think maybe in stabilization of wines. That

Rossi:

Teiser:

HOGS!:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

was one of the principal problems that the industry
faced, stabilization of wines.

It was the Berkeley Yeast Laboratory that had a part
in the whole program?

Well, Berkeley Yeast Laboratory supplied the culture,
pure cultures. A man by the name of Pessler. He was
a technical raan, too. He had quite a bit to do,
Fessler did. Julius Pessler. He s still alive. He

lives in Oakland, near Piedmont,
to the industry, Fessler was.

He was a great help

Before Prohibition, had peotxLe simply kept their own
cultures?

They didn t use them.

Just what was on the grapes?

Yes. Before Prohibition they didn t use them, except
what we found out in 1909. Yoti see, prior to 1909
when my father introduced this on a commercial scale.,
Well, the fact of the matter is, they hadn t known
very much about it in France, either. Was developed
at Montpelier in France in the early part of the
century. We imported it in concentrated liquid form.
As I said, that was the biggest advance in California
wine mailing from the quality standpoint, use of pure
cultures and sulfur dioxide.

Did people who were starting wineries, and hadn t
had experience in the industry, come and ask you
questions at that time?

Rossi: Not particularly.

Teiser: Did you bring in any technical people at that time
that hadn t been with you before?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: Did you immediately start shipping east?

Rossi: After Repeal? Yes.

Teiser: And found a reasonably good market?

Rossi: Yes.

Telser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Someone said that California wines had at first a
rather poor refutation in the eastern narkets
because so many of then spoiled in transit.

That*s it. The quality the first few years of Repeal
wasn t particularly good.

I would thin]: it was amazing it was good at all.
-That s right.

There weren t so many of you who had had the courage
to stick with it for all those long years.

Well, that was true, that was true. People got out
of the wine industry.

Your operations at Italian Swiss Colony, then after
Repeal, did they continue growing?

Well, we began to expand our production, yes, in the
late thirties.

With the acquisition of still other...?

No, we didn t acquire properties except La Paloma
Winery. That s the only big property and the only
outside property we acquired.

Teiser: You expanded the facilities you owned then?

Rossi: That s right. Those two big wineries, Asti and La
Paloma Winery at Clovis.

Teiser: Did you invest in more acreage?

Rossi: No.

Teiser: You bought more grapes?

Rossi: Bought more grapes or acquired more wine.

Teiser: By the end of the thirties was Roma still the
dominant winery? Or had you come up to...?

Rossi: No, no. No, they were always dominant.

WITH NATIONAL DISTILLERS,

Teiser: I believe it was in 19^2, then...
Hossi: We sold out to National Distillers.
Teiser: What were the factors?

Rossi: Well, the factors were that we got an offer.
[Laughter]

Teiser: Why do you think they made the offer?

Hossi: Because they couldn t get grain for whiskey. And
they wanted to have the appearance with their
distributors to keep them happy. So they got into
the wine business. And then there s also alcohol,
which was wine, so most of their distributors got
into the wine business. And they offered us a fair
return, a fair price for our plants, so we sold out.

Teiser: Why did they choose you?

fiossi: Well, we had a good reputation and fair volume, and
we were willing to sell.

Teiser: At the time of the sale then, you and your brother
remained in executive positions, did you not?

Hossi: For five years. Hot quite five years. We didn t
have a contract.

Teiser: Oh, you didn t?

Hossi: HO, it was a day-to-day proposition.

Teiser: My word, you must have trusted them.

Hossi: Well, they wanted to make that a condition of sale
and purchase, back in New York. And I was back in
Mew York, and I said, "As far as my brother and I are
concerned, we don t want a contract. Let s get along.
If we have a contract, and. we don t get along, what s
the use?" I said, "But I think we ought to get along
if we re happy and you re happy. And if we re not,
well, what s the u:;e of the connection?" So it lasted
four years and. nino months. On a d.ay-to-day basis.

Teiser: I ve heard it said that the whiskey people didn t know

Teiser: enough about the wine business to run it.

Rossi: That was pretty nearly right. That is, you don t run
the wine business like you do the whiskey business.
Because the nrofits are not there in the wine
business. In the wine business you work with pennies,
and in the whiskey business you work with dollars.

Teiser: Didn t they know that before?

Rossi: ITo.

Teiser: And nobody thought to tell them.

Rossi: [Laughter] Well, once or twice I was good enough to
tell them, "We don t do it this way in the wine
business." For example, they wanted to give a brand
name to every different product. Port, sherry,
muscatel, tokay, Madeira, different name for everything,
I told them, "Your nane is Italian Swiss Colony. Then
you put the word -oort, sherry, muscatel. And as
long as it s Italian Swiss Colony sherry, that s
enou.ghl "

They found out after a while. Then they came to
the viewpoint that the name Italian Swiss Colony was
the brand name. You only had to advertise one brand
name instead of half a dozen or a dozen.

Teiser: Were they satisfied with the kind of wine that you
made, or did they want you to change the wines?

Rossi: No, the wines were all right.

Teiser: Did they understand your production cycle?

Rossi: I think so. At least the man that was in immediate
charge of the wine division, who was, you know, the
director of the wine division from a policy stand
point, even though they didn t operate directly
themselves the day-to-day operations.

Teiser: Did they have anyone out here?
Rossi: Eventually. After vie got out, yes.
Teiser: But not before?

Rossi: Well, yes, there wrs General Deane. General John
R. Deane .

Teiser!
Hossi :
Teiser:
Eos

reiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Honsi:

Teiser:

Hocsi:

Teiser:
Hossi:
Teiser:
Hossi:

What had happened to Mr. Prati?

Oh, he was kept on as production manager.

After you left?

Yes,* they didn t have anyone in the production end
of the business. And they kept Hr. Prati. He was
capable. But from the executive standpoint, they
wanted their own peor&gt;le after four or five years.

General Deane came though before you left?

He had no e3merlen.ce in the wine industry, did he?

No. But he was sort of representing National here.

Was he a good executive?

les.

How did you happen to leave? You and your brother?

We were asked, to resign. [Laughter] They would have
kept one of us, but we decided to both resign. We
had worked, together all our lives. They didn t want
too many executives. So we resigned. After four
years, nine months. Well, after all, they owned the
company, they could do as they pleased. We refused
a contract.

Well, it didn t work for them very well, did it?
Oh, I wouldn t say...
Oh, did it?

Oh, yes, they got along all right. Only thing is,
eventually they found out they felt they didn t
belong in the wine business, the whiskey people.

Teiser: Now they re all taking another look.

" r ln 1951 Enrico Prati left to become a founder of

Martini & Prati Wines. He died May 25, 1952.

Rossi:

Teiser;

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi :

That s another thing today, they re getting back
into it. Well, days of conglomerates, you know.
[Laughter] Heubleln has just bought out BV,*

So I see.

Must have made a very good offer.

Heubleiii now owns...

Italian Swiss Colony, Well, that is [now owned by]
United Vintners. United Vintners had already effected
their last acquisition, the Inglenook Vineyards, by
the time they sold out recently to Keublein. They re
a quality house, the Heubleins.

I hope they ll...

They ll maintain the quality. It s an indication
that they will when they buy out these best brands.
I think they re going to try to keep the Inglenook
brand at a high level.

I wonder if they ll be using just grapes from that
area.

Well, the estate-bottled will be Inglenook one hundred
;oer cent. At a dinner of the Wine and Food Society
board of governors, Professor [I-Iaynard] Amerine was
asked that question, whether he thought they would
maintain the quality, and he said unquestionably yes.
I was glad to hear him say that. He s just resigned
from the board of governors of the Wine and Food
Society because of taking his sabbatical.

THE WINS ADVISORY BOARD AND THE WINE INSTITUTE

Teiser: After you left National Distillers, you then went
immediately to the Wine Advisory Board as manager?

Rossi: Well, yes, because we retired on the first of October,
19^7. And I was offered this position with the Wine
Advisory Board in llovember, 19^7 but actually did
not go to work for them until the first of January,
a month and a half later, because I wanted to become
familiar with the operation in an informal way. So
I worked without any for a month and a half, just to

*Beaulieu Vineyard

Rossi: get acquainted with the operation, feeling I could

do better if I wasn t under pay than if I sunplanted
the manager I was replacing.

Teiser: Who was he?

Rossi: A Mr. Jackson.*

Teiser: And you had been instrumental in the formation of it?

Rossi: Oh, yes.

(Interview #*f - July 9, 1969)

Teiser: Perhaps you could recapitulate the sequence of events
that itfent into the formation of the Wine Institute.
You said before we were taping that you and your
brother perhaps had gotten Leon Adams interested in
the Wine Institute.... Or how did it go?

Rossi: No. The Wine Institute was the result of a small
organisation fornied right prior to Repeal. We had
hired Mr. Adams and his partner, Robert Smith, in a
public relations job. And Leon Adams became very much
interested in the wine industry of California. In
fact, every time I see him almost, he refers to me as
"my tutor."

Teiser: You tutored well.

Rossi: Well, I gave him a few basic ideas and he fast

surpassed my knowledge. And from then on, he became
very closely associated with the wine industry of
California, because when I became manager of the Wine
Advisory Board on January 1, 19*1-8, he was a fine man
to work with because he was so enthusiastic.

Teiser: At the time the Wine Institute was formed in 193^, you
were one of the first...

Rossi: ...organizers. As I say, the Wine Institute is the
aftermath of an organization of about eight or ten
wine people who went to Washington to try to get table

*Eugene Jackson

reiser:
Hossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Sossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

,-tonsi: wines declared non-intoxicating in fact, so that it
would qualify as a legitimate product to sell even
though table wines had at that time 12 per cent
alcohol.* Our argument in that regard, was that a
beverage Is either intoxicating or not, according to
the manner in which it is customarily used., and. table
wine was not generally sold in bars; it was sold.
niostlj - for home wine use at table or in restaurants
with food. Now when you use alcoholic beverages of
a mild alcoholic volume, you generally don t go for
the alcoholic effect on the system but more as an
item of enjoyment, making food more ar&gt;r&gt;ealing. And
also in a medical way, it has its virtues. So this
Gra-oe Growers League of California in a year or two
expanded its ambition and appeal by gathering in a
wider segment of the ind.ustry. I think it became at
that time the Wine Producers Association, something
like that, I can t remember exactly the technical
name we ooerated und.er. And the Wine Producers
Association then also expanded, in turn, to the V/ine
Institute. But more or less it was the same rteople.

Who were those people, principally?

Well, the original members that constituted the Grape
Grovjrers League wer&lt;3 small organizations like Beaulieu
Vineyard, Lee Jones, a gentleman by the name of
Edgar M. Sheehan who was a vineyardlst near Sacramento.
Of course there was Italian Swiss Colony.

Were you and your brother both active?

Oh, yes. We were very active. And Mr. [Sophus]
Pederspiel, who in my father s day had been my father s
assistant manager of the Italian Swiss Colony. And
H.O. Lanza, who had recently come to California. He
came out of Predonia, New York. He was an attorney.

He s one of the few who came from out of state, isn t
he?

Yes. He s still alive.
I have interviewed him.
The Wine Institute vra.s a voluntary organization and.

See also T^D. 60-61.

Hossi: had no legal standing, compulsory membership, so it
didn t quite measure up to potentialities of
cooperation of an industry.

Going to the formation of the Wine Advisory
Board, when the Agricultural Act of I think 193^ was
passed, in Sacramento to favor agricultural industries,
we recognized that this was an opportunity for the
wine industry to form an organization that could
avail itself of the so-called nolice powers of the
State of California. By oolice powers, I mean that
it could be made compulsory on every member of the
wine industry if, after a public hearing, the director
of agriculture could find legitimately that it was
to the advantage of all members of the industry even
though they might not agree to it voluntarily. So
the director, after the first hearing, did so find
that it was to the benefit of the members of the wine
industry, and it became effective.*

Teiser: About how much of the industry had the Wine Institute
itself represented ?

Rossi: Voluntarily? Well, I would say at least half, but
that wasn t enough.

Teiser: No. I believe the members of the industry voted, did
they, on the marketing order for the Wine Advisory
Board?

Hossi: Oh, yes. On the wine marketing order, certainly.
It had to be, under the law.

Teiser: Did you do some campaigning to get up industry support?
Rossi: Oh, sure did.
Teiser: How did you do it?

Hossi: Oh, just by arguin ;. We had to educate the American
public to the prop3r use and knowledge of wine.

*"A Marketing Order for Wine, under the California
Agricultural Marketing Act of 1937* was placed in
effect on October 2^4-, 1938," according to Outline of
Recent Stabilization Plans in the California Grape
Industry, a typewritten Wine Institute report , a cot&gt;y
of which is on deposit in the Bancroft Library.

Teiser: You sold, that idea to the winemakers?
Rossi: To the winemakers, that s right.
Teiser: Was there nuch opposition?

Rossi: Oh, a fair amount of opposition. They went to court
about it.

Teiser: Who went to court?

Rossi: The members that were in favor of it. Because sorae
members of the industry, a minority, in numbers
particularly a minority, refused to pay the dues.
They agreed, to r&gt;ut the funds representing what would
be compulsory dues in a special fund pending the
determination of t:ie constitutionality of the
agricultural code provisions that bound all members
of an industry when. 65 per cent of an industry, either
by volume or by individual numbers, voted in favor of
it. Provided, that the director of agriculture found
that it was to the good, of the entire industry.

Teiser: Who were those that opposed it?

Rossi: I think Mr, Gallo r; organization was the rrincit&gt;al
one.

Teiser: There were others?

Rossi: It was a minority, by numbers.

Teiser: I suppose it was by volume as well, wasn t it?

Rossi: But they had. to be a certain number by volume and by
numbers .

Teiser: Hadn t Mr. Gallo boon a member of the Wine Institute?

Rossi: I don t think so.

Teiser: Because he s quite a loyal member now, isn t he?

Rossi: Oh, yes. I guess he s in favor of it now. There
were a few that would, have sr&gt;ent considerably more
in the way of dues so as to accomplish more quicker.
But ...

Teiser: There are some that would rather siDend more?

Rossi: At that time. Particularly in the beginning. He
eventually had to conform, but always voted, for a
moderate assessment,

Teiser: Gallo?

Rossi: Yes. He figured h3 could best spend his money in
his way.

Teiser: I suppose it s mors to the advantage of a large

company establishing an individual brand to spend
less with the industry and more for itself, is it?

Rossi: For the immediate present it would have been, but....
Immediate results. But I was always one in favor of
a larger assessment.

Teiser: Were there any other notable industry members who
were not enthusiastic?

Hossi: No, I don t think so. I think it was nretty generally
accepted.* As I say, I figured there was so much
work to be done in the way of education, and there
was such a limited amount of dues available for
spending on rsublic relations advertising. However,
half a loaf is better than none, and quite remarkable
results were obtained.

It shows ut&gt; now in that table Trine usage has
come so far UP as compared to sale of dessert wines.
Used to be that dessert wine sales were much higher
than the table wine sales, and now it s almost 50-50.
And there s no doubt that before long the table wine
business will surpass the dessert wine business.

Teiser: In the San Joaquin Valley, as you probably remember,
there x*as the Sweet Wine Producers Association. I
think I heard that its members were in favor of the
Wine Institute.

Hossi: Oh, yes. Mostly. Because they needed almost more
educational results than the table wine people.

Teiser: Why?

*The marketing ordor "received the written assent of
nearly 90 per cent of the industry. " Ibid.

Hossi:

Telcer:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Ilossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

they had. less of a "background of cooperation
in the history of the wine business nrior to
Prohibition.

Tnat was one of the early efforts like your Grape
Growers League?

Yes.

./as it similar to that, would you say?

Yes, I imagine. But that cane later. The original
set-up was the Graoe Growers League of California.
Big sounding name, but few oeoule involved, and
people with imagination.

Were the Wentes involved in that?

Oh, yes, but they were a small factor.

I wonder if the small companies didn t really gain
more by the Wine Advisory Board than the large?

They did. The small wine producers gained a good
deal more proportionately for what they contributed.
But the bigger factors realized that the Image of
the wine industry vias enhanced by the spreading of
the knovrledge of the use of table wine rather than
by that part of the business that defended on people
using dessert wines more for the alcoholic content
of the dessert win 3 and the reasonableness of the
nrice.

I think I heard somewhere that in the earl?/ days,
the Wine Advisory Board nubile relations campaign
stressed the small wineries more than the large
because it was trying to create an image of quality.
Am I correct?

That s right. That s right. And the fact of the
matter is that the president of the Wine Institute,
I guess, was generally a small factor in the industry,
and even in the l/ine Advisory Board program, the
industry has seen fit to keep as its president or
chairman, rather they call it, a so-called small
grower like lir. I-lirassou,* who s been 15 years, I
think, chairman of the board.

A. Mlrnssou.

Teiser: And much of the informational material that was given
out was stressing the smaller wineries?

Rossi: Yes. Well, stressing the beverage that had a higher
image*

Teiser: The book by Frank Schoonmaker and Tom Marvel Ame r i can
Wlries.,-" must have been a kind of landmark. Did yon
view its publication as an important step for the
wine industry in California?

Rossi: Well, Schoonmaker, I think, came lately. He was

representing foreign wines more than American vrir.es.
That was his business, importation of foreign wines.
And it was only after American x-rilnes, following
Repeal, had improved their quality to the extent
that the quality was really superior, you might say
American wines were beginning to make an impression
on the consuming public that he had, to take a position,
He couldn t continue to say that the wines were no
good. For a long time there, the importers in America
and the exporters in Europe were downgrading American
wines, and it got to the point where the tests were
made blindfolded, not exactly blindfolded but without
labels on the bottles; we began to prove that the
average American public didn t know much difference,
couldn t on a blind test say unequivocably this is
domestic American -fine and this is foreign because of
the fact that the foreign wines are supposed to be
so much better. VJell, that isn t true. One has to
be absolutely -prejudiced to make statements like that
today.

Teiser: Have there ever been any wine industry tastings of

the kind that the canning industry has in its annual
cuttings?

Rossi: No, not to that extent, other than taking part in

the California State Fair exhibit of California wines
when the public is invited to participate in the
tastings without cost.

Teiser: I was thinking of the aspect of the Canners League
cuttings where the; r just buy cans off the grocers
shelves and open them, and the industry, not the
public, examines them. It s kind of a brave thing,
for an industry to do.

*New York: Duell, Sloan and Fearcc,

Rossi: Well, to a certain point it s also a brave thing for
wine industry members to participate in the State
Pair award s.

reiser: Yes. At one time though there was criticism of

entries that they said were wines that were not the
ordinary purchasable wines.

Rossi: v/ell, that is true to a certain extent, because the
test tastings were made not so much to prove that
the ordinary table wine was high quality but to prove
that the possibilities were there if the industry
wanted to avail itself of the possibilities that
existed in the soil and climate of California. And
that s why you did not have to have a big quantity,
commercial quantities available to prove the point.
Fact of the matter is that there were two general
classifications, the higher classification, and the
bulk classifications. 3y bulk classifications I mean
wines that were exhibited with e. stated minimum
quantity, and it was set nretty high. But the other
classification was available to those who had only
minimum quantities of certain grades and varieties
of wines.

Tel sen You were on the board of the Wine Institute from the
beginning. What were its initial efforts?

Hossi: Well, the Wine Institute went more for protesting

legislation, unfavorable legislation. And its public
relations.. . .

Teiser: Was Kr. Jefferson Peyser with the Wine Institute?

Rossi: Yes, right from the very beginning. He was right
from the very beginning.

Teiser: Who was the first manager of the Wine Institute?

Hossi: Harry Gaddow.

Teiser: And was Mr. Leon Adams with it in the beginning?

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: What was his position then?

Rossi: Assistant manager.

Teiser:

.Rossi:
Teiser:

Hossi:
Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser: His job was r&gt;ublic relations?

Hossi: Yes.

Teiser: What was Mr. Caddo^ s, the same?

Hossi: Yes, but Mr. Caddo;? was concerned a great deal r.ore
than Mr. Adams with legislation. Educating the
legislators. The Wine Advisory Board was educating
the consumer. Both were necessary.

So the Wine Advisory Board was established in 38,
is that right?

38, yes.

It must have been a difficult task to get it established
in a period of ecoioinic stress.

Necessity is the mother of invention,

But it Ttfas a time :ihen it was hard to give up a
dollar.

That s right. That s right. That s why I felt that
even if it hurt, there was more to be accomplished by
taking a little less profit. It didn t make too much
difference, to my -.jay of looking at it, because every
body was paying his pro rata. It wasn t as if one
was gaining an advantage that the other didn t have.
Except that those Trho were more affluent could afford
to go their OT-m way more easily than those who were
smaller and had limited capital. And my position was
that in the long run, those with more capital could
develop their business faster and grow much more
strongly established if they still were able to sell
more wine through cooperative efforts.

Teiser: One of the other big wineries of that period was Homa.
Were they for...

Rossi: I think so.

Teiser: They were in support of the Wine Advisory Board?

Rossi: I think so. i-iaybe they xreren t as enthusiastic, but
they didn t oppose It.

Teiser: When it began, who was the manager, first? Who was
the first manager of the Wine Advisory Board?

Rossi: .That was Hr. [3uge ie] Jackson.

Teiser: He stayed until you came in?

Rossi: Yes. I became manager January 1,

Teiser: Had he had a background in the wine industry?

Rossi: No, I don t think so.

i eiser: What was his function?

Hossi: Well, he had a crew of men out in the field like,
subsequently, I did too.

Teiser: What they were doing?

Rossi: Well, when I cane, we stressed the educational
features.

Teiser: liad he been doing that?

Hossi: Yes.

PROGRAMS Ai-JD FUNCTIONS

Teiser: Did you change anything from the way he d been doing
it?

Rossi: Well, yes. I think one of the principal changes that
came about after I came in was that I felt it was
more necessary to reach the general public economically
by giving out leaflets rather than booklets. I mean
leaflets that cost you one cent apiece insteo.d of
something that cost you ten cents, twelve cents,
fifteen cents apiece. You could reach more t&gt;eot&gt;le.
Educational material that cost little enough that
you could just take a chance on wasting a certain
amount because we were reaching a much bigger public.

Teiser: I think I know the leaflets that you mean. They were
very well designed.

Hossi: Yes. And then they were very generally used at
tastings and lectures. Before, they had recipe
booklets. Well, that appealed only to rseoule who
knew something about it already. The booklets. But

xiossi:

&gt;P,

Teiser:

fiossi:

Teiser:

liossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teinor:

Rossi:

here you had to get the interest of people who didn t
know anything about wine. And you had to take a
certain element of chance of wasting say half of what
you... but it wasn t that riuch. I remember the first
big change thr.t cane about. I don t remember if I
mentioned this to you before or not. That the first
leaflet I got out &gt;ias one on cheese and wine.

Well, the reason was that some people who don t
like wine, like cheese, and some people that don t
like cheese, like -iiiie. So we figured that there
must be something In the combination that had its
appeal, general appeal. And the only question was
of reaching that particular public. And we got out
neat and wine, fish and wine. The same thing with
fish. Use white wine for cooking fish. Lot of people
don t like fish, "but maybe with wine they d like it.

Then your organization was receiving funds from the
whole Industry, Were you hiring the Wine Institute
to perform some functions for you?

Yes

In fact, the
Institute were sup
Advisory Board, be
the Wine Advisory
had established it
standpoint, the Wi
the Wine Advisory
Wine Institute was
its operations.

principal functions of the Wine
sorted financially by the Wine
cause the Wine Institute preceded
.Board, program by a few years and
self. And from a legislative
:ie Institute represented more than
Board. And the personnel of the

immediately available to expand

Did the relationship between the Wine Institute and
the Wine Advisory "3oard change?

r!o. It was pretty well stabilized.
You didn t change it in any way?

No. It was felt that they could have more freedom
operating as Wine Institute in legislative matters.

And your field men, so-called, what functions did
they serve?

They held wine tastings, gave wine lectures.
How did you find men to hire who could, do that?
Well, you had to educate them. Bring them in, and

Hossi:

Teiser:

ilossi:

reiser:

ilossi:

Teiser:
Hossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:
Teiser:
Rossi:

teach then. They did a good lob.

How many had you, doing that kind of work?

Oh, 15 or 16.

Did you work rather closely with the University in
any ways?

Hot r&gt;articularly. That was norc the function of the
Wine Institute. But 30-90 per cent of the funds
that were snent by the Wine Institute were under
contract fron the /inc Advisory Board. There would
have been no Wine Institute if there hadn t been a
Wine Advisory Board. In the long run. In the
beginning, yes, it might have lasted, but it would
eventually have broken up because they couldn t have
had a Wine Advisoi v Board in a program that was purely
voluntary.

And its funds kept growing as the industry grew and
as inflation grew?

Not necessarily. I don t think that its present
budget is any biggor than it was ten years ago because
they reduced the assessment per gallon.

Teiser: What xras the assessment when you came in?

Hossi: Three-quartern of .-. cent a gallon for table wine

sales and one and a half cents a gallon for dessert
wine sales. Then it went to one cent and two cents.
Now it s back again to one cent and one and a half
cents.

Is there any other way that could have been levied?

Mot that I know of.

No other was suggested?

Ho, couldn t have been because the profits on wine
sales were minimum, in pennies. And that sometimes
made the difference, especially before brands had
become established and advertising budgets for brands
becarie sizable. Before it was levied on bulk sales
more than on case good sales.

Teiser: Did you work with individual wineries in their
promotion programs?

Rossi: No. Unless it was programs that benefitted the whole
industry. Although I ll qualify that. There were
those members of the wine industry who appreciated
the cooperative efforts more than others, and naturally
we d work with them, more by accident than by design
because the same programs were available to anyone
who wanted to avail themselves of the programs we
were trying to put over. Some were more willing to
cooperate.

Teiser: Who were the members of the industry who were
particularly cooperative in those programs?

Rossi: Well, our own organization was very cooperative,
Italian Swiss Colony, and naturally the smaller
producers. They wore always ready to cooperate
because they were getting quite a bit for the small
amount they were contributing. But that was by
design, too. The larger factors appreciated the Dart
they were playing in establishing an image for the
wine industry.

Teiser: Herman Wente, was he active?

Rossi: Yes. He was active and he cooperated well though his
volume did not represent any sizable amount of money.
But he had a fine reputation.

Teiser: You were then manager of the Wine Advisory Board from
19^ until 60?

Rossi: Until July 1, 60.

Teiser: You decided to retire then?

Rossi: Yes. I quit work then.

Teiser: Looking back on that period, what do you think was
accomplished?

Rossi: Oh, I think the educational work was responsible for
the whole thing. You had a program that I ll be
perfectly frank with you the members of the wine
industry didn t realize how good it was. I ve always
said they didn t realize how good it was.

Teiser: You had some advertising help, didn t you?
Rossi: J. Walter Thompson [Company].

Teiser: And did Mr. Adams have a hand in the preparation of
material for you?

Rossi: I don t think so.

Teiser: You mentioned working with him.

Rossi: Yes, well, I mean to say you couldn t be in the wine
industry if you didn t cooperate with the others in
it to get the best advantage because there was so
much to be done.

Teiser: Was it the Wine Institute that got out press releases?

Rossi: Yes, under contract. From us.

Teiser: And you handled the advertising direct?

Rossi: Yes. And the field work. Except in the facets of

legislation when wo had dealings with legislators to
educate them.

Teiser: The assessments were handled by the Department of
Agriculture?

Rossi: The assessments were banked by the Department of
Agriculture.

Teiser: You never knew then from one year to another what
your next year s budget was going to be, did you?

Rossi: Well, it was pretty uniform.

Teiser: You knew about what the sale would be?

Rossi: Yes. Because one of the principal troubles before
I got in there was that they didn t know from year
to year just what they would have available for
spending. And so having managed the finances of our
own company, that bothered me. And I always was very
conservative in budgeting activities so they always
had quite a fairly sizable surplus. We didn t have
deficits.

Teiser: And you used the surplus of one year, the next?

Rossi: Yes, we were always, if anything, half a year ahead
of the soendinpc.

Teiser: So that if there were variations in the market, you
were protected.

Rossi: Yes.

Teiser: Were the assessments collected annually?

fio s s i : Mont hi y .

Teiser: And banked for you every month?

Rossi: Yes. We had a yearly budget, though. And naturally
we were conservative. I was conservative in
expenditures because there s nothing so bad as to
propose to do something and then not do it. So, as
I said, there was always an ample surplus to take
care of what ever &gt;ias budgeted.

Teiser: Did you do any wor 1 : with people outside of California?
Were your field men....

Rossi: All over the United States.

Teiser: Did you travel all over the United States?

Rossi: Myself too. Yes. Well, it was good to have that
type of activity, to see the boss, who had been in
the wine business himself. It was quite long, 12-1/2
years .

Teiser: I imagine that your experience was a factor that is
impossible to evaluate.

Rossi: Yes. Because your field men always boosted you up
farther. I don t n :now whether they always believed
what they said. [Laughter]

Teiser: Well, I mean, for the whole industry to have some one
who had long experience in it.

Hossi: Yes, well, it is an advantage, there s no doubt about
it. No doubt about it.

Teiser: Are there aspects of your work and experience that
we haven t covered?

Rossi: No, I think you hit the nail right on the head two
minutes ago when you said it s an advantage to have
a part in establishing an industry and then actively
connected with the promotion of it. Because then T /ihen

Rossi: you are out of the industry personally you could

look at it a little more impartially and with a certain
amount of prestige because of your past connections.

Teiser: Did. you regret retiring?

Rossi: No. I was tired.

Teiser: Must have been a demanding Job.

Rossi: Yes, and then people have different ideas, and so,
say, well, I ve had. ray day, I guess. Like these
young people today figure they have all the answers.
Well, they think they have all the answers. Maybe
they re right; who knows?

Teiser: well, it must be a great source of satisfaction to
you now to see the industry going ahead, in much...

Rossi: Oh, it certainly is. It certainly is. Because I was
always for cooperating with the others. It was a
fortunate act, you know, that agricultural code.
They couldn t get cooperation in non-agricultural
industries, because they would be accused of anti
trust. This took it out from under the threat of
anti-trust, being an agricultural industry.

Teiser: Puts it in a very favorable...

Rossi: Position, that s what I say. People didn t appreciate
what they had.

Teiser: Was it necessary for you to build up a case that wine
was an agriculture! industry or was that pretty much
accepted?

Rossi: Well, no, that was a perpetual argument we used to
have to keep before the public. That was one of
the Wine Institute s activities.

Teiser: But did you have trouble establishing that with the
State Board, of Agriculture?

Rossi: No. No.

Teiser: Or the courts? That was not contested in the courts?

Rossi: No. They had special programs for wheat and tobacco.
How could they refuse it to the wine?

Teiser:

Rossi:
Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:
Teiser:

Rossi:

What year was it, do you remember, that the courts
upheld the marketing acts, or the protests were
dropped?

I don t know.

I presume you didn t think it was going to "be declared
uncons t i tut i onal .

No. No. If it had been resisted by a great deal of
the public and the trade..,. Let me put it another
way: One of the reasons why I guess there wasn t
too much resistance to the program by the state was
that it didn t cost the State Treasury any money
because it was all industry money that was being put
out for advertising and public relations. The only
thing that it cost the state was maybe five per cent
for administration of the general program, but no
sizable amount because there was just a certain amount
of overhead in Sacramento and that s about all. Other
wise it was all industry money that was being spent.

And the hearings themselves were not of any particular
significance, you Indicated. It was the voting, I
presume, that was?

That s right,

Was Mr. Setrakian against this? Or did he take a
stand?

Oh, I think he was for it. How could he be otherwise?
He was operating a raisin program. I think it was a
particularly fortunate program, myself. It wouldn t
have lasted all these years if it didn t carry a
certain weight. You see, that s 30 years. That s
a long time. And there i-ias only a short interval
of a few months, I think, where they had some trouble.
They went to a one-year program instead of a three-
year program and then eventually went back to a three-
year program.*

Teiser: What was the trouble that made them make it that short?

Rossi: Oh, a difference of opinion about the advantages of
it by a minority.

*The one-year program was in

Teiser:
Hossi:

reiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:
Rossi:
Teiser:
Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:
Teiser:

Advantages of the whole program? Or aspects of it?

Oh, aspects of it. If any aspect of it is strong
enough to thwart an overall program, it doesn t make
any difference whether it s one reason or another is
the cause of it.

Was there a special aspect that was objected to?

Well, it was probably that the table wine people
weren t paying their proportionate [share]. On the
basis of a ton of grapes used, they actually were.
They were paying as much for a ton of grapes. Because
the assessment generally was twice the table wine
assessment for dessert wines. Of course you only
get half as many gallons of wine out of a ton of
grapes when you make dessert wines. Generally 160
gallons of table wine per ton, and generally 80
gallons of dessert wine per ton, more or less. That s
generally the formula.

So they were finally convinced?

Yes.

It was the sweet xd.ne producers who were protesting?

Well, what happened was this, the dessert wine people
went into the table wine business and the table wine
people went into the dessert wine business, so there
really wasn t that division of opinion any more.

I guess that was after they decided they could grow
table wines in the Central Valley?

That s right. Not as high a quality, no, but passable.

There are very passable wines made there don t you
think?

Rossi: I think so.

There are some people who say you can grow just as
good wines any place...

That isn t so.

...if you know how to handle them.

Hossi: Oh, you could a passable wine quality, standard
quality, but not as good as all districts.

OVERVIEWS

Teiser: Who are the outstanding wine industry men you have
known?

Rossi: Oh, I ve known them all.

Teiser: Who among them have seemed outstanding?

Hossi: Oh, I d say all those that are well-known today.
Same ones. It hasn*t been changed. Hasn t been
changed, except Mr. Gallo has come right up. I think
he s appreciated the deal. More than he did in the
beginning. What cooperative effort has meant. And
he has established a good reputation for quality.
And that s good. He has tried to make a product that
would appeal to the American taste more than to the
traditional connoisseur. The average American taste
would not appeal to the traditional wine drinker of
old. I use the word "traditional" in quotes because
even the foreign wine standards and appeal is different
today than it was 20 years ago, prior to Prohibition
part i cularly .

Teiser: How does it differ?

Rossi: Well, for example, we have different standards of

living, we have different tastes today. When people
worked long hours, especially in the field and the
field workers were mostly foreigners, either Czechs
or Slavs or Latins or Greeks and they were more of
an agricultural economy and worked hard, long hours.
Well, they made wines that had a lot of tannin for
example. They could handle the tannin and digest it,
whereas American people wouldn t go for that. And
Mr. Gallo recognized that and he made a wine of a
different type than the traditional wine. You can
see today the foreign wines mature much quicker than
the old traditional foreign wines.

Teiser: Those made in Europe?

Hossi: Yes! They re changing them. They re changing the

Bossi: quality of their wines. The old traditional wine

drinker would consider maybe the foreign wines that
are being put on the market today second grade.
Personally, I think it s better. Because they don t
have as much tannin as they used to have before. And
they mature quicker. And particularly today when
everything costs so high, they can t tie up their
capital to the extent that they used to tie up
inventory.

Teiser: California wines, are they held for a shorter period
than they were say 15 years ago? Are they aged less?

Bossi: They are aged, I would say, no more. No more.

Personally, I like a kind of wine that s got a new
taste. Particular wine I m drinking now is a compara
tively new wine, and it has a very fine appeal, and
I like it. For everyday use, I prefer it to the old
wines.

What is it?

Burgundy.

Whose?

I won t say.

They are finding an advantage in bottling white wines
young?

Yes. They ve developed a technique through the
universities of getting a higher quality. You hear
so much the old wines, pre-Prohibition wines, were
so much superior to the wines of today. That isn t
so. Today s wines are better, if anything, than the
old wines. We used to have a lot more trouble in
preserving a clear wine, for example.

Teiser: The trend to wines in bottles rather than in bulk
has this been good, do you think?

Bossi: Yes.

Teiser: You think more wine should go out in bottles?

Bossi: Yes. Well, nearly all of it goes out in bottles.
Except those who buy in tank cars and then they do
their own bottling. They eventually sell in bottles
too.

Teiser:
Bossi:
Teiser:
Bossi :
Teiser:

Bossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:
Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser!

Hossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Hossi:

Teiser:

Rossi:

I remember when we could take a jug down to one of
the little wine shops here in San Francisco and buy
from a barrel.

Yes, that s very true,

Who was behind the legislation to stop that?

Well, I think maybe one of the principal ones to
stop it was Roma, because they figured they could
get a higher quality to the consumer if the consumer
bought it in the original package.

I must confess that I felt for a while there that
you could develop the business quicker by featuring
bulk sales. But I changed my mind. You can get a
better product buying the original package.

Wasn t a law t&gt;assed that...
In certain states.
In California?
Yes.

It seems to me that it s no longer possible to buy
in bulk. For the consumer.

Oh. I think you can. But it just doesn t pay any
more. The American people don t want to bother with
it. You have the bother of the large containers,
what to do with them, you know, how to disnose of the
barrels or kegs. People who want a larger quantity
can get a case of four one-gallons quite reasonably.
And then they can bottle their own gallons. I do it.
Gallons or half gallons. When you use a certain
amount, it pays.

You have seen the national corporations come into
the wine industry. Do you think that has changed
the character of the industry so far?

No.

And you say that you don t expect it to?

I don t think so. The very fact that they re getting
in and staying in, or getting in and getting out and

iiossi: then coming "back again.

Teiser: Maybe they learned something.

Hossi: Yes.

Teiser: Do you think they did, earlier?

Rossi: Surely. People are going in for moderate things
And wine is a moderate beverage.

APPENDIX

1966

THE STORY OF

ITALIAN SWISS COLONY

98a

ITALIAN SWISS COLONY V^Acf^Ai Wvtjev

Asti, California

98b

San Francisco, in i860, was a sober town. The great de
pression of the seventies had crippled its business and thrown
thousands of its people out of work. The unemployed, in their
desperation, had turned to radical leaders who at one time
threatened the city s destruction. Now recovery had begun and
the era of radicalism had passed.

But the scars remained and so did many of the unemployed.
Among them were hundreds of Italian and Swiss immigrants who
had been lured to California by the glowing promises of steam
ship agents. The plight of these immigrants attracted the
attention of Andrea Sbarboro, a leader in the city s Italian
colony. Out of his interest grew an institution which has be
come a business landmark in California.

Sbarboro had come to San Francisco in the early 1850* s at
the age of 13 and went to work in his brother Bartolomeo s gro
cery store. In 20 years he had acquired his own store and be
came moderately successful. Then the banking collapse brought
on by the panic of 1873 opened a whole new career to him.

Constriction of credit resulting from the financial crisis
had encouraged formation of mutual loan associations through
which members might finance their cum needs. Sbarboro organized
and became manager of such an association in l8?5; it was the
first of five that he founded, which handled $6,500,000 in re
ceipts and financed the building of 2500 homes in the San Fran
cisco area.

The grocer-turned-banker, conceived the idea of applying
the building and loan principle to the problem of the Jobless
immigrants. The bulk of them, Sbarboro knew, were peasants
whose best hope of success lay in returning to the land. There
was plenty of good land in California. All that stood between
the immigrants and the land was money. Sbarboro set out to get
the money.

He went to the friends who had helped him launch his mutual
loan association and uade a proposition. Let each of them con
tribute a little each month to a fund with which to buy a tract
of land to be worked by the immigrants. Let each immigrant con
tribute at least $5 a month from his wages to the fund. After
a set period of years let each immigrant use his accumulated
contributions plus any dividends to buy a portion of the tract,
thus liquidating the project and paying off the original in
vestors.

98c

Sbnrboro s friends agreed and by-laws were dravn up pro
viding that "This association shall be known as the Italian
Swiss Agricultural Colony ar.d its objects shall be to buy
and sell agricultural lands for colonial or other purposes, or
to cultivate the same.,.." All permanent employees were to be
members of the association and preference was to be given to
Italians and Swiss immigrants who either were or intended to
become American citizens.

On March 12, l88l, the Colony was incorporated and Italian
and Swiss businessmen in San Francisco subscribed 2,250 dollar-
a-month shares. Among the leaders of the original corporation,
in addition to Sbarboro who served as secretary, were M. J. Fon-
tana, president; Dr. G. Ollino, vice-president; Henry Casanova,
\ Vv treasurer; Dr. Paol^pDe Vecchi, and Pietro Rossi. There were
\ o ^-^"* nine elected directors. After $lo,ooo had been accumulated,

Sbarboro and two of his associates, M. Perata and S. Campodonico,
began surveying likely sites for the Colony. More than Uo sites
were examined before they settled on a 15oo acre tract of pasture
land in Sonoma County, 90 miles north of San Francisco.

The land, situated on gently rolling hills in the Russian
River Valley, was ideally suited to vineyards, and the Colony s
directors had the growing of grapes in mind since most of the
immigrants had been vineyardists. The countryside reminded them
of Northern Italy, where most of the immigrants had come from,
so they named their tract Asti, after the region in Italy.

The Colony paid $10,000 down on the land and agreed to pay
off the $15,000 balance in thousand-a-month installments from
their subscription income. Sbarboro set men to work clearing
the hills of trees, and one of the Colony s directors arranged
to import grape cuttings from Italy, France, Hungary and Germany.

When the land was ready for cultivation, Sbarboro invited
the city s jobless Italians and Swiss to a mass meeting. He ex
plained the purpose of the Asti project and made the men an offer

for each of them, board, room, wine for personal use, and

$35.00 a month in return for his labor. Each would be required
to subscribe at least $5 a month for five shares of stock, there
by building his equity in the land. In the end, each man would
be an independent farmer, having acquired his land on the in
stallment plan.

98d

To Andrea Sbarboro s surprise, the suspicious peasants re
fused his offer. The Colony s directors explained it several
times over without success. No man would take a chance, though
they all expressed a willingness to work. Not one took the
chance which would have given him a retirement income of at
least $60.00 per month for life, only 25 years later. Sbarboro
little dreamed at that time, that, 75 years later his original
plan for the land would finally become a reality and the Colony
would in fact become wholly owned by the growers and producers
of the grapes.

Having already bought the land, the directors decided to go
ahead anyway. They agreed to keep up their monthly subscriptions
and operate Asti as a private venture. Several hundred jobless
immigrants were set to work planting grape cuttings and building
living quarters for themselves. Various parts of the new vine
yards were named after certain sections or towns in Italy.

By the time the vineyard matxired and the first big grape
crop was ripening, the price had fallen from $30 to $8 a ton,
which was less than the cost of prodxiction. Threatened with
ruin, the Colony s directors made a momentous decision. They
decided to "store" their perishable crop by turning it into wine.

A $10 assessment was voted on each of the Colony s 2250
shares, and with the $22,500 thus raised, a stone winery of
300,000 gallon capacity was built in 1887. The Colony s first
grape crush was also its worst due to mishandling, the wine
turned to vinegar.

After seven years of subscription, the Asti Colony was still
apparently a failure, but Sbarboro s friends stood by him. Pietro
Rossi, a San Francisco druggist who had studied winemaking in
Italy, was sent up to take charge. From the day of his arrival
in 1888, the Colony dated its success, though it had to undergo
one more crisis.

The first wines Rossi turned out proved to be excellent and
the directors .could at last foresee some return on their invest
ment. But they reckoned without the fluctuations in the wine
market. The wholesale price offered for Asti wines proved to be
as far below a profitable level as the price offered for Asti
grapes.

The Colony gambled once more. They had already gone from
philanthropy to farming to winemaking, so they took one more step
and become their own wholesalers. Italian Swiss Colony opened
offices and wine vaults in San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans
and New York and set out to market their wine direct to the re
tail trade

98e

Asti wines caught on immediately and Sbarboro, Rossi and
their associates pushed ahead with a program of expansion, buy
ing more land and making more wine. During the first 16 years
all profits were ploughed back into improvements and additions
and the stockholders, carrying out the cooperative principle did
not pay the first dividend to members until 1897. By that time
the organization had agencies in scores of American cities and
more than a dozen foreign countries,

Asti had become an established community with its own post-
office, railroad station, school and church. Its laborers, most
of them Italians, had built homes and raised families around the
winery. The directors, proud of what had been accomplished, be
gan to build summer homes in the valley and to make a social cen
ter of Asti.

No West Coast visit by members of Europe s nobility was com
plete without an inspection of Asti and an outdoor banquet of
stunning proportions with Sbarboro playing host. The winery s
guest book was studded with the names of great personages from
Europe as well as the United States.

Andrea Sbarboro 1 s summer home at Asti exceeded all the rest.
On a trip to Italy, he had visited Pompeii and seen the famous
Casa cle Vetti. He secured a copy of its floor plan and dupli
cated the Pompeiian villa on the banks of the Russian River.

Then Sbarboro added a characteristic personal touch, he in
stalled an elaborate underground sprinkler system. Its purpose
was to sprinkle not his trees but his guests, for Sbarboro was
an inveterate practical Joker. The grounds of the estate became
a maze of hydraulic boobytraps for the unsuspecting.

One of the sprinklers was hooked up within a stone grotto
equipped with hammocks. The guests who flopped down to rest in
the wrong hammock automatically gave himself a shower. Sbarboro
loved outdoor banquets during the summer at which it was possi
ble to shower his guests while he sat dry and roaring with laugh
ter at the head of the table. Frequently his sons arranged the
setting so that Sbarboro himself was doused.

The treacherous sprinkler system at Asti was obviously cop
ied from one built by Marcus Sittich, Archbishop of Salzburg, at
his 17th century palace in Hellbrun Gardens, and which was fed
by 116 underground springs. Sbarboro, however, had improved on
Hellbrun for the Archbishop s sprinklers had to be turned on by
hand, while the banker s operated by pressure valves.

98f

In the course of becoming one of the world s largest win
eries, Asti had not sacrificed, quality. Within four years of
the time that Pietro Rossi took over the winemaking for the
Colony, it had won its first gold medals in competition. Many
of the awards came from American fairs and expositions, but the
ones that pleased the directors most were those won in competi
tion with European wines abroad.

Prejudice against American and particularly California wines
was strong in Europe and such exhibitors competed under a heavy
disadvantage. Despite this, Asti wines won gold medals at Genoa
in 1892, at Dublin the same year, at Bordeaux in 1895 and at
Paris in 1900. Diplomas of honor were conferred upon the Colony s
wines at the original Asti in Italy and at Turin in 1898 and at
Milan in 1906.

Then, in 1909, Pietro Rossi undertook an experiment which
resulted in one of Asti s greatest triumphs. Having noted an in
crease in sparkling wines sales, he decided it was time to expand
the Colony s champagne production. In the course of a visit to
France with his twin sons, Rossi stopped off in J&eims, in the
heart of the champagnrf count ry.*fiTherar he met Charles Jadeau, a
noted champagne makex, and persuadedydiim to come to California.

When the news of Jadeau 1 s departure became known, reaction
in France ranged from outraged indignation at Jadeau for his
desertion to riducule of Rossi for thinking be could duplicate -**.-
French wines. The Paris newspaper, Le Petit Journal, devoted a *
long editorial to the subject. "The Americans are wrong," the ~ r ^
paper wrote, "when they think they can do everything better than
anyone else, and that nothing is impossible to them. The fact
is that there are still in this world many, many things which TV&gt; f~
they can never achieve. For example, they have not been able to
manufacture champagne or even produce a sparkling wine that sug-
gests the champagne of France." , ,.

This, the editorial continued, was not for lack of trying.
Americans had imported the methods, the grapes, the yeast and
done everything possible to duplicate champagne, even to luring
over champagne experts "by spanning the ocean with a bridge of
gold." But despite these efforts, "The champagne of California
has turned out to be fright full sour wine, only fit for German
troopers". "Alas," Le Petit Journal concluded, "The imitators
of champagne have forgotten one important thing, the soil of
France with its subtle sorcery."

98g

Rossi ignored the blast and returned to California, with
Jadeau. He unfolded his plan to the Italian Swiss Colony s dir
ectors and they authorized the building of a new champagne plant
with the finest equipment obtainable. A blend of Asti s finest
white wines was made by Jadeau and 150, COO bottles of champagne
were laid down in the Colony s cellars.

A year later, a few experts were invited from San Francisco
for a tasting. Rossi and Jadeau anxiously opened a few bottles.
The wine had all the sparkle and flavor they had hoped for, and
the experts pronounced it excellent. The Colony s directors or
dered production expanded once more, and put their champagne on
the market under a new label, GOLDEN STATE EXTRA DRY.

Convinced that he had something to show skeptical Europeans,
Rossi decided to exhibit his champagne at the international expo
sition in Turin, Italy, in October, 1911. With Sbarboro s en
couragement, a selection of Golden State was made and sent off to
Europe.

The Judges at Turin, among the most celebrated connoisseurs
in Europe, were noted for their prejudice against American wines,
but they promised an impartial decision. After seven days of
tasting and arguing together, they finally announced their Judg
ment. GOLDEN STATE had been awarded the Grand Prix, the highest
award possible, and the first time a California wine had been so
honored. Perhaps the crowning success of all came with the ad
mission by Le Petit Journal that "The sun DOSS shine Just as
gloriously in California as in France."

Pietro Rossi never lived to learn that his new champagne
had been so well received. While riding near his home at Asti,
he was thrown from his horse and killed on October 9 1911 The
news of the award at Turin did not reach California until late
in the month of October.

With the death of Rossi, one of the two great figures in
the development of the Italian Swiss Colony had been removed.
The management of the winery itself was carried on by Rossi s
twin sons, Edmund and Robert, who had learned winemaking from
their father s example. Andrea Sbarboro, then head of the Ital
ian American bank in San Francisco, remained secretary of the
Colony and split his efforts between banking and promoting the
wine business.

98h

Sbarboro, during the first decades of the twentieth century ^
found himself and his Colony confronted by an enemy of imposing
size the national prohibition movement. The movement, though
aimed primarily at eliminating drunkenness, posed an obvious
threat to Asti and to Sbarboro s way of life. He counterattacked
with a barrage of speeches, pamphlets and appearances before con
gressional committees.

Whatever the earnest women of the temperance movement may
have thought of him, Sbarboro considered himself a true temper
ance advocate. He proclaimed his eagerness to end_drunkenness
from every available rostrum. But his method lay in converting
the hard drinker to light vines while the prohibitionists sought
to impose temperance by drying up all alcoholic beverages.

To prohibit the use of wine through prohibiting the use of
all alcohol struck Sbarboro as insane. He sincerely believed, and
produced the word of learned authorities to prove, that wine was
beneficial to health, an aid to digestion and a necessary ingred
ient of the good life.

He argued that those states which already had prohibition
suffered more from drunkenness than they had before, and that
therefore prohibition was no easy road to temperance. He sug
gested that America could achieve temperance overnight by switch
ing from whiskey to vine and, incidentally, by cutting out tea
and coffee.

Sbarboro 1 s cure for the chronic drunk was unique. Every
arrested drunk was to be sentenced to 30 days in jail and served
light wines with his meals. Upon his release, Sbarboro believed,
the fellow would be converted to temperance and an appreciation
of wine, and would henceforth abstain from hard liquor. Back
sliders were to be given 60-day sentences and the same therapy.

He advocated following the example of France and 3/taly and
providing every man in the aimed services with a daily wine ra
tion. The wine-drinking countries of Europe, he argued, had lit
tle drunkenness, and America should learn from their temperate
example. He cited passages from the Bible to prove that wine was
the favorite drink of the prophets and often he declared his belief
that biblical evidence proved the Deity was not a prohibitionist.

98i

In his appearance "before Congress, Sbarboro was fond of de
claring that if his crushacle succeeded he could die happy and have
engraved on his tombstone the epitaph-- "Here lie the bones of
Andrea Sbarboro who first sowed the seeds in the halls of Cong-
gress which removed drunkenness from the United States." The
seeds, of course, were; Down with prohibition and whiskey, up
with wine and temperance!

He once scandalized a WCTU deligation at a congressional
hearing by a well meant suggestion. The women, he said, might
best insure against their children growing up to be drunkards by
starting them off in the highchair with a tipple of half wine and
half water.

Whiskey distillers resented Sbarboro 1 s method of fighting
prohibition at their expense and even attempted a boycott of Asti s
prodxicts. Others were amused by his crusade, but not the temper
ance forces. For whatever his logic or the merit of his argu
ments, he was three times credited with defeating national pro
hibition bills before Congress.

Sbarboro, of course, was only fighting a delaying action and
he himself finally realized it. On the eve of World War I he
withdrew from the wine business, convinced at last that national
prohibition was coining to America. Within three years prohibition
arrived and the Colony s operations were brought to a halt. Sbar
boro died in 1923 at the age of 83, presumably of influenza, but
possibly of disgust at the sight of his beloved Asti meekly bot
tling grape juice for teetotalers.

In 1920 Pietro Rossi s sons, Edmund and Robert, together with
Enrico Prati, who had worked up from the ranks of Asti s laborers,
revived the Italian Swiss Colony. They kept it going throughout
the prohibition era by selling grapes and grape juice. Then, a
decade after Sbarboro 1 s death, came repeal. The Rossi s and Prati
plunged into a program of expansion which, within a few years, re
turned Asti to the ranks of the world s largest wineries.

Along with this growth went a strict adherence to the tradi
tions of quality Pietro Rossi had originally established, tradi
tions which have won the Colony more awards for excellence than
any other California vintner.

98j

With the coining of World War II, governmental needs for alco
hols for defense purposes were increased tremendously. In order
to insure a continued source of alcohol for beverage purposes,
many major distilling companies began to look towards the i;ine
industry with its abundant potential. One by one, most of the
larger vine companies and many of the smaller ones were leased or
purchased outright by these large and wealthy distilling inter
ests. In 19^2 the Rossi s and Prati sold Italian Swiss Colony to
National Distillers Corporation, who continued to operate it until
the war was over and won. During this regime the great LA PALOMA
winery at Clovis, California, (near Fresno) was purchased and
added to the growing Italian Swiss Colony as was the well known
S & J (Shevan Jones) winery at Lodi, California. Addition of
these two wineries, both located in the heart of the finest sweet
wine grape producing region of California, vns to allow the com
pany to concentrate its production efforts in the area in which
the grapes were grown. It had been the practice in the past to
ship the varieties of grapes which were grown in the central val
leys to Asti in gondola cars to be crushed and made into wine
there. Now it was possible to efficiently produce only table
wines in the great Asti winery which is located in the heart of
the table wine grape growing area, and sweet wines in the Lodi
and Clovis wineries, which are in the dessert wine grape belt.

By the early 1950* s the California wine industry could fore
see the probability of tremendous post-war growth. The large
distiller owners, however, had come to realize that the produc
tion and merchandising of wine was not particularly akin to simi
lar functions of the distilled beverage field and in spite of the
optomistic future of wine, the distillers, for the most part, de
cided to limit their activity to their traditional specialties
and offered the wineries up for sale. It is possible that they
had come to understand better Andrea Sbarboro s philosophy of
temperance with moderate use of wine during their few short years
of association with the wine industry. In 1953 National Distill
ers sold ITALIAN SWISS COLONY to an organization of vintners
which was known as UNITED VINTNERS INC. United s history dated
back to 1886, when it was established by Rafello Petri with the
purpose of buying and selling wines, and over the years it has
experienced growth and expansion similar to that of the Colony to
the point where, by 1953&gt; it was the owner of several large wine
companies in the large sweet-wine producing central valley of
California.

98k

United Vintners had been closely associated with the estab
lishment in 195.1 by 2 J !0 grape growers, and the subsequent rapid
growth of a grape growing cooperative called ALLIED GRAPE GROWERS.
Between the years of 195^ and 1959 United Vintners sold or leased
several of its plants to the cooperative which was destined to
"become the largest producer and merchant of wine in the entire
world t

Final culmination cane on September 1, 1959&gt; with the out
right purchase of all holdings of United Vintners by ALLIED GRAPE
GROWERS, which by then had grown to include almost 1300 grower-
members. This transaction gave the growers complete ownership of
all the former United Vintners wineries and bulk storage plants
which had a total capacity of about 55,000,000 gallons and a weekly
grape crushing capacity of 1*5,000 tone. It also gave, the growers
sole ownership of all wine brands and labels formerly owned by
United Vintners as well as the large specially constructed ship,
the S.S. Angelo Petri, which could carry 2,500,000 gallons of wine
in its stainless steel tanks plus 1,500,000 gallons of other types
-of liquid cargo.

The wineries located at Asti, Clovis, Lodi, Madera, and Es-
calon, the storage plants located at Stockton, Newark, Houston
and Chicago, and the bottling facilities in Chicago and Newark
all came under the ownership of the grape growers, and thus was
finally realized the original dream of Andrea Sbarboro, over 75
years after its inception, whereby the growers of the grapes
would be the sole producers of the wines which bring fame to
ITALIAN SWISS COLONY. Today, following expansion of certain of
the above wineries plus subsequent purchase of wineries located
at Reedley and Oakville, ALLIED GRAPE GROWERS are the world s
largest grape and wine growing cooperative and have a total stor
age capacity of over 80 million gallons.

P.C.Rosa.. Mr,. sl oone. NEW YORK BRANCH N. E. Cor. W. IliK and WASHINGTON STS. A SBARBORG sre, a ry

Ohio Arldrnss ASTICOIONY.

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GRAND DIPLOMA or HONOR /- f APTlJl 4&4 . UO

o/i/v FRANCISCO. CAL.

Mr. Frederick J. Taggert ,

San Francisco, Cal, ^^ /(^O ^

Dear Sir:- V ^ **

On the occasion of the coming of "The Fleet" with
its attendant festivities, we believe the time opportune for
one and all to show their loyalty and patriotism by using only
CALIFORNIAN products in the entertainment of our distinguished
visitors during their stay in this City.

King Victor Emanuel of Italy, recently at an

official dinner given at the Quirinal in honor of the Diplomatic
Body, put into force his decree that henceforth only Italian
Wines should be offered at his table. A like policy has been
adopted by Emperor William of Germany.

Let us, likewise, be loyal and show our dis
tinguished guests that the "CALIFORNIA WINES", as recognized by
connoisseurs, are equal, if not superior to the imported article.

Our famous TIPO Chianti, Red and White, and our other
numerous varieties of table wines, as well as our delicious
Champagnes, "ASTI SPECIAL DRY" and "SPARKLING MOSCATO", produced
in our celebrated Vineyards at ASTI, CALIFORNIA, may be obtained
from all firstclass grocers, wine merchants, club?, restaurants,
hotels, etc. and, we apfure you, can be served with pride to
the most distinguished guests.

We sincerely trust that when designating the Wines
to be served at table on these festive occasions, that your
selections will be confined to Native productions, thus proving your
loyalty to CALIFORNIA and spreading our fame abroad in the land.

Anticipating your favorable action and soliciting
your valued patronage, through any of our distributors above
referred to, we beg to remain,

Yours very truly,

ITALIAN-SWISS COLONY,

GRAND PRIZE AWARDED AT MILAN EXPOSITION. I90. (J. ROSSI Pr68.
H/S

INDEX Edmund A. Rossi

Adams, Leon, 6l, 62, 77, 84, 85, 90

Allegrini, Julius, 17

American Wines (book), 83

Amerine, Maynard [A.], 76

Asti Grape Products Company, 10, 38, 40, 4l, 47, 6l

Beaulieu Vineyard, 76, 68. See also de Latour vineyards.

Berkeley Yeast Laboratory, 71

Bernard Vineyard, 37, 38

Biane, Philo, 37

Bioletti, Frederic T., 31

Brandt, Beatrice. See Mrs. Edmund A. Rossi.

brandy, 28, 29

Brookside Vineyard, 37, 38

Brotherhood Winery, 21

Caddow, Harry A., 59, 60, 6l, 62, 84, 85

Caire, Amelie. See Rossi, Mrs. Pietro C.

Caire, Justinian, 10, 11, 12

California Barrel Company, 59

California Consolidated Vineyard Company, 36

California Fruit Canners 1 Association, 7

California State Fair, 83

California Vineyardists Association, 55 * 58, 59

California Wine Association, 5, 8, 20, 21, 22, 25-30, 35, 37,

39, 40, 44, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52
California Wine Makers Corporation, 25, 27
Calwa Corporation, 48
Campodonico, Stephan, 4, 9
Casanova, Henry, 4, 5, 8
Colabella, Carlo, 22
Conn, Donald, 55, 56, 58, 59
Crocker, Charles H., 49
Crocker, Henry J., 25, 38
Cruess, William V., 31, 70

Daneri, A., 5

Davitto, Bernard, 54

Deane, John R. , 74, 75

de Latour vineyards (Beaulieu Vineyard), 59

de Martini, L. , Supt&gt;ly Company, 38

de Martini, Luigi, 38

de Vecchi, Paolo, 4, 8

de Vries, Marion, 59, 60

Di Giorgio, Joseph, 41, 69

Dolan, Mrs. Paul E., Jr., 16

100

Sari Fruit Company, 4l

Federal Farm Board, 59

Federspiel, Sophus, 18, 78

Ferrari, Abele, 6?

Fessler, Julius, 71

Fontana, Mark J. , 4, 5, 7, 8, 38, 4-0, 48, 50

Fontana, Nellie T., 5

Frapolli, B. , 5, 9

Froelich, T., 37

Fruit Industries, Ltd., 4-3, 55, 56, 57, 59

Gallo [E. & J. Winery], 80, 81, 95

Gambarelli & Davitto, 52, 53, 54, 70

Gambarelli, Victoria, 54

Gevasco, G.B. , 5, 9

Gherini, Ambrose, 39

Gherini, Mrs. Ambrose, 13

Grape Growers League of California, 59, 60, 62, 78, 82

grappa , 28

Green, Russell H. and Betty Jean, 33

Haigh, Fred, 33
Haigh, Mrs. Fred, 33
Haigh, Vivien, 33
Healdsburg Machine Shop, 67
Heger & Company, 67
Heublein [Inc.], 16, 25, 76
Holm, Hans, 31
Hoover [Herbert C.], 58, 63

Inglenook Vineyards, 76
Italian-American Bank, 4, 36, 38, 39
Italian Swiss Agricultural Colony, 3, 5, 38
Italian Swiss Colony, Passim

Jackson, Eugene, 77, 86

Jadeau, Charles, 23, 24
Jones, Lee, 78

Joslyn, Maynard, 6l, 70

Kingsburg Winery, 21
Koster, Henry, 59
Kriegbaum, Marcellus, 35, 36

Lachman & Jacobl, 25, 26
Langmann, V., 5^
Lanza, Horace 0., 59, 60, 62, 78
La Paloma Winery, 64, 65, 72
Lejon, 25

101

Malm, C.A., 38

Martini, Louis [M.], 21

Martini & Prati Wines, 75

Marvel, Tom, 83

Merle, A.J. , 10, 38, 4?

Merle, Adrian, 10

Morrow, A.R. , 8, 20, 39, 40, 4-8

Miller, C.O.G., 49

Mills, Wilbur D. , 60

Mirassou, Edmund A. , 82

Mission Dry Company, 6l

Mount Diablo Vineyard, 36, 3?

National Distillers Corporation, 25, 52, 65, 73-76

O f Donnell, Eleanor [Rossi], 14
Ollino, Dr. Giuseppe, 2, 3, 4, 5
Owens-Illinois, 68

Pacific Advertising, 6l, 62

Paladini, , 21

Perata, M."J 4", 5, 9

Perelli-Minetti, Antonio, 18, 19, 57, 59

Perelli-Minetti, Giullo, 17, 18, 33

Perelli-Minetti, Mario, 57

Peyser, Jefferson, 84

Pioli, Astolfo, 50, 51

Pillsbury, E.S., 49

Portola Vineyard, 37, 38

Prati, Enrico, 10, 40, 4l, 45, 46, 47, 6l, 68, 69, 75

Prati, Olinto, 46

Prohibition, 4, 21, 23, 24, 34, 38, 39, 42, 48, 49, 50-55,

60, 64
prorate, 58, 85

Bafanelli, Cesare, 67
Ravenna, V. , 5
Repeal, 63, 64, 68, 71
Repetto, Victor, 62, 63
Roma Wine Company, 72, 85
Roosevelt [Franklin D.j, 63
Rossi, A. Olga, 13
Rossi, Domenico P., 6, 7, 14
Rossi Drug Company, 7
Rossi, Edmund A., Jr., 16, 25
Rossi, Mrs. Edmund A., 16
Rossi, M. Aime"e, 13
Rossi, P. Carlo, 13

Rossi, Pietro C. , 1, 2. 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22,
23, 25, 26, 31, 33, 3^, 36, 38, 48, 66,

102

Rossi, Mrs. Pietro C. , 11, 12

Rossi, Robert D. , 4, 13, 18, 22, 30-32, 34, 40, 46, 55, 64,

73, 75
Rossi, Yvonne. See Mrs. Paul E. Dolan, Jr.

St. Amant, W.L. , 59 60

Sartori, Henry A., 38

Sbarboro, Alfred, 4, 39

Sbarboro, Andrea, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 39, 69

Sbarboro, Romilda, 5

Sbarboro, Romolo A., 39

Scalione, Mario, 6?

S choonmak er , Frank , 83

Seghesio, Edoardo, 47

Seghesio family, 46, 47, 69

Seghesio winery, 4?

Setrakian, A., 93

Sheehan, Edgar M. , 59, 78

Shewan- Jones , 65

Simi Winery, 33

Smith, Alfred, 63

Smith, Robert L. , 62, 77

Steylaars, Charles L. , 12

Story of Italian Swiss Colony. The. 1, 23

sulphur dioxide, 19, 20, 30, 31, 32, 53

Sweet Wine Producers Association, 81

Tarpey, M.F. and Sons, 64

Tarpey, Paul, 64

Taylor, Walter, 56

Theresa Vineyard, 38

Thompson, J. Walter [Company], 89

Torrens, Beatrice [Rossi], 13

Tribune, Jack, 19

Tribune, Louise, 19

Tribune, Mario, 18, 19, 62, 63

"21" Brands, 19

United Vintners, 1, 16, 25, 76

Valley Foundry and Machine Works, 67
Vasconi, L. , 4, 17

Wall, Albina [Rossi], 13
Wall, C. Allen, 14
Wente [Bros.], 82
Wente, Herman, 89
West, George & Sons, 56

103

Western Wine Producers Association, 60, ?8

Wiley, Dr. Harvey, 20

Wine Advisory Board, ?6, 77, 79, 82, 85, 87, 88, 89

Wine and Pood Society, 76

Wine Institute, 59, 60, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 87, 88, 90

yeast, pure culture, 71

Zabaldano, Alexander, 10, 11
Zellerbach Paper Company, 68

Wines Mentioned in the Intervi ew

champagne, 23-25

Madeira, 29
muscatel, 22, 29

port, 29
sherry, 29

"Tipo Chianti" 29, 68
tokay, 29

vin mousseux* 23

Grape Varieties Mentioned in the Interview

Carignane 5^
French Colombard, 24
Golden Chasselas, 24

Petite Sirah 54
Pinot, 24

Riesling, 24
Zinfandel 54

Ruth Teiser

Born in Portland, Oregon; came to the Bay Area

in 1932 and has lived here ever since.

Stanford, B. A., M. A. in English; further graduate

work in Western history.

Newspaper and magazine writer in San Francisco since

1943, writing on local history and business and

social life of the Bay Area. .

Book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle

since 1943.