Frasinetti's Winery was founded
in 1897 by James Frasinetti. James was an Italian immigrant who came
through Ellis Island, from there he went to New Orleans and then ended
up in San Francisco where some cousins owned a candy making business
where he worked for a few years. James then moved up to the Sacramento
Valley where he was inspired to open his own winery with the help of
friends, and family.
Joseph were already spending their life in other
pursuits. At James's passing the winery went through various changes
and adjustments. James and his wife Rose raised
a large family and ran their winery with joy and happiness. At
Frasinetti's peak there was over 400 acres of vineyards and their wine
was being shipped by rail to the east coast. James Frasinetti ran his
winery till he was 93 years old at the time his 3 sons, Amelio,
Constadino, and
In the 1970's Howard and Gary,
the grandsons took over the running off the Frasinetti's Winery.
Howard and Gary began to make many changes to the winery to bring it
into the current decade and make it possible for the winery to again
prosper. They made changes to the process of how the wines were made.
Before the 1970's wine had been produced in large quantities of
generic wines, but the Grandson's transitioned the winery into making
small batches of more progressive wine styles.
In 1985 Howard and Gary opened
a restaurant in what was the old east cellar. Much of the restaurant
décor contains wood from the old Redwood vats that used to house the
wines during the fermenting process, this wood can be found in the
booths, walkways, rails, bar tops and much more. Many other materials
that were part of the cellar have been used in the décor in order to
make it have that old winery feel and atmosphere, and to also
conserve.
Now at Frasinetti's, there are
no vineyards but there is still a fully functioning wine production,
that bottles every two weeks. Frasinetti's receives its grapes from
the Napa Valley area and then goes on to produce a nice array wines
with the Frasinetti's label.
It doesn't just stop there when
it comes to Frasinetti's. At Frasinettti's you could go to have a nice
dinner or be invited to some special event in one of there banquet
rooms, or could even attend a wedding in their beautiful outside
gazebo and then celebrate move inside to a banquet room to celebrate.
Howard and Gary pride themselves on being a business that knows their
patrons by name and has such down home staples on the menu as
spaghetti and pot roast, (just like their mom used to make).
