Our California history began with our grandfather, Anthony Sr., who moved the family here from Brooklyn in 1963. He recently passed away, but his traditions live on with my brothers, sisters and me. We will always remember our family's Sunday night dinners at his winery home, where he passed along the family history and made sure we understood that the best wines are those enjoyed with family and food.
His grandfather Dominic emigrated to the U.S. from Ischia, Italy in 1903 and settled in a Brooklyn brownstone not far from the docks where he worked as a ship's caulker. Dominic taught his sons to make wine, which they sold in gallon crocks from his horse drawn wagon. Dominic opened Scotto Liquors a few years later, a neighborhood retail shop that is still in business.
Anthony Sr.'s wine career began in 1940 when he started selling gallon jugs of his father's red wine from a pushcart. Eight years later he and his brothers created Villa Armando, an Italian style rustic red wine. Today Villa Armando is one of the oldest U.S. wine brands and has filled more than 200,000,000 glasses with traditional red wine.
