Wine bottle label, “Bargetto’s Zinfandel,”1930s
date: label: date made
content: 1930s
notes: label: Description
content: This paper label from the 1930s was used on bottles of Zinfandel produced by the Bargetto family in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. Zinfandel, a red grape variety favored by Italian producers and consumers, was one of the grapes most widely grown during Prohibition. Its thick, dark skin helped keep the grapes intact during long, cross-country rail shipments to home winemakers back East. During Prohibition (1919-1933) male heads of households were permitted to make up to 200 gallons of wine for home use, a provision that created tremendous demand around the country for winemaking grapes.
label: Description
content: The Bargetto family’s story reflects in many ways the history of Italians in California, with several themes threaded throughout: multiple migrations between Italy and America, opportunity and work in the wine industry, and the importance of family and community. The first Bargettos to arrive in California were Giuseppe (Joseph) and his eldest son Filippo (Philip), who left their ancestral home in Italy’s Piedmont region, in 1890. They settled among other Italians in the winegrowing area around Mountain View, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they found work at the Casa Delmas Winery. Although Joseph moved back to Italy two years later, Philip remained until 1902, when he returned to Italy to be married. Three years later Philip and his new family arrived back in California, settling first in San Francisco, then, with remarkable prescience, to Mountain View just before the devastating earthquake and fire in 1906.
label: Description
content: In 1909, back in San Francisco, the Bargettos opened their first family winery on Montgomery Avenue. Philip’s uncle Giovanni (John) arrived from Italy and, with a third partner, Alberto Colombo, they formed the South Montebello Vineyard and Wine Co., where they fermented, aged, and delivered barrels of wine to local restaurants. The next member of the family to arrive from Italy was Philip’s younger brother, also named Giovanni (John P.), who went to work in a San Francisco restaurant. After two years and suffering from exhaustion, he moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he was joined by his sisters Angelina and Maddalena, both of whom married Italian immigrants. The growing Bargetto family became part of an expanding community of Italian Americans in the town of Soquel.
label: Description
content: As Prohibition loomed, the Bargettos closed the San Francisco winery and moved to Soquel in 1917, where they purchased the site of what became the family’s winery after Repeal. Here they began making wine for home use by family and friends. To keep themselves financially afloat during Prohibition’s dry years, the family peddled vegetables and also served meals out of their home on weekends. Customers who wanted a glass of wine with their meal, a longstanding Italian tradition, were served wine from barrels stored in the cellar.
label: Description
content: After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the Bargettos applied for federal bonding, and officially became Bonded Winery 3859. The two brothers, Philip and John P., ran the winery together until Philip’s death in 1936; through the 1940s and 1950s, John P. held the company together with help from his sons Ralph and Lawrence, who took the lead in the 1970s and 1980s.
label: Description
content: The winery was still family-owned in 2014, when artifacts associated with the early years of the Bargetto family’s winery were donated to the museum. The donor, John E. Bargetto, with his brother and sister, are the third generation of Bargettos to operate the family’s wine business in the Central Coast region of California.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Santa Cruz
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
label: See more items in
content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Bargetto Winery thru John E. Bargetto
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.3130.02
label: catalog number
content: 2014.3130.02
label: nonaccession number
content: 2014.3130
objectType: label: Object Name
content: label
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/16 in x 4 9/16 in; 10.63625 cm x 11.58875 cm