Andrew Mattei

Andrew Mattei (c. 1848 – 1931)[1] was a Swiss-Italian winemaker who immigrated to Fresno, California, where he became the owner of a large winery.[2][3]

Mattei came to Fresno County, California, in approximately 1890,[4] and founded the Mattei Winery in 1893.[2] His vineyard grew from 80 acres at its start to 1,200 acres in 1910.[2][5] By 1915, his winery was valued at ten million dollars and was reported as "among the largest in the state";[3] it became the largest in the country prior to Prohibition.[6] As well as wine, the winery also sold grape syrup and brandy.[2]

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.[7] Once again called the Mattei Building, it remains the 7th tallest building in Fresno.[8] Despite Mattei's fears, the Mattei Winery and its Mattevista Wines brand name continued to operate after the repeal of Prohibition,[9] and lasted until 1962, when it was sold to Guild Wineries.[2]

Mattei's daughter Eleanor Theodolinda Mattei married botanist Henry Gleason, and his grandson, named after Mattei, was Harvard University mathematician Andrew Mattei Gleason.[10]

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, 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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