The Old-Timers

There is a group of wine personages who started getting together at informal luncheons in 1989. They call themselves, simply, the Old Timers, and that’s what they are – wine industry pioneers who have weathered the storms of Prohibition, phylloxera, the Great Depression and all the curves that Mother Nature has chosen to pitch at them. The roster contains a lot of familiar wine names: Sebastiani, Mondavi (both Peter and Bob), Martini, Pedroncelli, Rossi, Gallo, Seghesio, and Foppiano. Those invited to lunch fit the two requirements: over 25 years in the wine industry and over 70 years of age. Most are well past 80, and Ernest Gallo has marked his 91st year.


The most recent get-together was also a sort of birthday party, honoring Louis J. Foppiano on the approach of his 90th birthday. Lou is the third generation to farm the land his grandfather purchased in 1896. The house in which he was born is not only still standing, but serves today as the administrative center of the winery. In 1919, when Prohibition reared its ugly head, the family interplanted the vineyards with prunes, apples and pears, and when the 18th Amendment was repealed, Lou and his mother, Mathilda (his dad had died in 1925) reopened the winery. In 1937, Foppiano became the first winery in Sonoma County to bottle wine under its own label.

Lou was a founding member of the Wine Institute and the Sonoma County Wineries Association, all the while increasing his vineyard acreage, and his concentration on Petite Sirah, while raising a family with his wife, Della. Today the fourth and fifth generations of Foppianos have joined Louis J. in the day to day operation of the winery; daughter Susan in charge of hospitality, Louis M. as general manager, and grandson Paul tending the vineyards.

Lou’s birthday falls on November 25th, but when you’re about to be 90, it would seem, you are entitled to celebrate for at least a full month. Happy Birthday Lou!