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Andrew Mattei

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American winemaker

Andrew Mattei (c. 1848 – 1931) was a Swiss-Italian winemaker who immigrated to Fresno, California, where he became the owner of a large winery.

Mattei came to Fresno County, California, in approximately 1890, and founded the Mattei Winery in 1893. His vineyard grew from 80 acres at its start to 1,200 acres in 1910. By 1915, his winery was valued at ten million dollars and was reported as "among the largest in the state"; it became the largest in the country prior to Prohibition. As well as wine, the winery also sold grape syrup and brandy.

Mattei's children disliked the wine business and so, fearing his company would be dissolved after his death, Mattei commissioned a 12-story office building in Fresno to bear his name; it eventually became the Guarantee Savings Building. Once again called the Mattei Building, it remains the 7th tallest building in Fresno. Despite Mattei's fears, the Mattei Winery and its Mattevista Wines brand name continued to operate after the repeal of Prohibition, and lasted until 1962, when it was sold to Guild Wineries.

Mattei's daughter Eleanor Theodolinda Mattei married botanist Henry Gleason, and his grandson, named after Mattei, was Harvard University mathematician Andrew Mattei Gleason.

References

  1. Sullivan (1998) reports his lifetime as 1835–1936. However, an obituary entitled "Mattei dies at 83" was published in the August 1931 issue of The California Grower; see Cribari, Al (August 1, 2001), "Look back to the future", Wine & Vines, archived from the original on August 8, 2014.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Charles Lewis (1998), A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present, University of California Press, p. 206, ISBN 9780520213517.
  3. ^ "Valley becomes manufacturing center: Varied industries are developed from soil products", Fresno Morning Republican, October 1, 1915. Reprinted in Brown, Stephen L.; Conway, William J. Jr. (2004), Early Valley Treasures: As Seen Through The Lens Of "Pop" Laval, Quill Driver Books, p. 195, ISBN 9781884995477.
  4. Sullivan (1998) reports the date as 1890; however, an earlier date of 1887 is given by Clough, Charles W.; Clingan, Helen; Secrest, William B.; Temple, Bobbye Sisk (1986), Fresno County: In the 20th century, from 1900 to the 1980s, Volume 2, Panorama West Books, p. 169, ISBN 9780914330974. The same 1887 date is also given by Smith, Wallace; Secrest, William B. (2004), Garden of the sun: a history of the San Joaquin Valley, 1772-1939 (2nd ed.), Linden Pub., p. 569, ISBN 9780941936774.
  5. Pinney, Thomas (1989), A History of Wine in America: from beginnings to prohibition, Volume 1, University of California Press, p. 331, ISBN 9780520062245.
  6. Cribari (2001).
  7. Brown & Conway (2004), p. 192.
  8. Buildings in Fresno, Emporis, archived from the original on October 26, 2012, retrieved 2013-04-05.
  9. Pinney, Thomas (2005), A History of Wine in America: from beginnings to prohibition, Volume 2, University of California Press, p. 16, ISBN 9780520241763.
  10. Gleason, Jean Berko (November 2009), Bolker, Ethan D. (ed.), "Andrew M. Gleason 1921–2008: A life well lived" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 56 (10): 1266–1267.
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