MAZZINI
BROTHERS
MAZZINI
BROTHERS, proprietors of Bacchus Winery, are among the rising firms of
Sacramento, and the firm is A. and S. Mazzini.
They commenced business on a small scale April 25, 1881, and on the 15th
of August, 1887, removed to their present location, where they have frontage on
Third street and also on K street. Here
no expense has been spared in fully equipping the wine business, and a trip
through the establishment discloses everything on the best of order. The cellars are splendidly adapted for the
purposes for which they are designed, and afford a cool, dry place for the
storage of wines. They have twelve
large fermenting tanks, and storage copperage for 35,000 gallons. They buy the best grapes to be obtained, and
use the most careful in the manufacture of their wines. Among those turned out by them may be
mentioned Port, Angelica, white wines and Clarets. They make a practice of storing wines of each year, and now have
wines from 1884 up. The office of the
winery is at the Third street entrance, but the public entrance to their retail
department, where they keep all kinds of wines, liquors, cigars, etc., is at
No. 228 K street. A. Mazzini, senior member of the Mazzini
Brothers, and the active head of the business, is a native of Italy, born in
the Province of Massa-Carrara, August 10, 1849, his parents being Louis and
Adelaide (Reali) Mazzini. He was
educated at his native place, for five years attended the College of
Pontremoli, where he took the regular course in Latin, belles-lettres,
philosophy and higher mathematics. He
then went to live with an uncle, for four years cared for the latter's property
and managed his business, attending to cultivation of vines, making and selling
of wines, etc. He then received the
appointment to the clerkship of the construction and of the railroad from
Spezia to Genoa, and was so engaged for six months. He then returned home, and in 1876 came to the United States,
landing at New York on the 6th of March, and reaching San Francisco on the
21st. On the 1st of May he came to the
Embarcadero, and on the 17th of October returned to San Francisco. From there he went to Newcastle, and worked
in the Julian mines seven days; and thence he went up into Shasta County, and
worked eighteen months in placer mining.
Fortune did not follow him during all this time, and at the end of five
years he did not have $500 in his pocket.
He was not familiar with the English language, and had to work against
great odds. Returning to Sacramento,
May 4, 1880, he worked six months for wages, and then bought out his employer;
and from that start he has attained his present situation. His business has already outgrown his cellar
room, and next year he will open a large establishment. He now understands not only his native
tongue, but also Latin, French, Spanish and English. He was the founder of Compagnia Bersaglieri Italiani, No. 3, and
was its first president.
An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J. Davis.
Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 283.
Submitted
by: Nancy Pratt Melton.