Early California winemaker
- Samuele Sebastiani (1874–1944)
- ITALY
After working for a few years, he was able to buy himself a horse and wagon, which he used to haul stones from Sonoma to pave the streets of the towns and cities growing around San Francisco Bay. He earned enough in this enterprise to buy a vineyard in Sonoma. The land and vines he purchased were some of the oldest in California, dating back to 1825, when they were part of the Sonoma Mission, the last mission established in California.
Sebastiani produced and bottled wine from this vineyard, but mostly for family and friends. Most of the grapes he grew were shipped to the East Coast, where much of the produce was made into wine by Italian immigrants like himself. Still, he introduced innovations into the California wine industry and was one of the pioneer producers of pinot noir and zinfandel, grape varietals that remain popular today.
In 1920, the 18th amendment to the Constitution outlawed the manufacture, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages. Luckily, Sebastiani was able to continue producing wine and other alcohol for religious and medicinal purposes. Thus, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, he was well positioned to take a leading role in the new domestic wine industry.
Samuele Sebastiani died in 1944, but four generations of his family have carried on his wine-making tradition in Sonoma County.