A Victorian taste of Italy: Situating the “Italian-Swiss Colony” in California wine culture

Abstract

The article focuses on Andrea Sbarboro's (1839–1923) Italian-Swiss Colony of Asti in Sonoma County and the success of his winemaking company created in 1881. By exploring the relationship between the symbolic space of the vineyard (which I refer to as a ‘winescape’) and the predominant racial narratives of the time in California, I argue that Sbarboro created an Italian space in which Italian Americans could be recognized as ‘white.’ Sbarboro's representations of winemaking as a tradition rooted in Greek/Roman civilization appealed to a Victorian cultural elite that intended to project a Classical and imperialist aesthetic into California. Even today, it is still possible to find in Sonoma and Napa Valley Italian American winemakers that link their business to a similar aesthetic with the unintended result of excising from the landscape non-white contributions to the history of winemaking in California.