The Cucamonga Valley, forty-five miles east of Los Angeles, has grown the bulk of Southern California wine during the present century. The vineyard area extends from Ontario east to Fontana and from the base of the San Gabriel Mountains southward to the Jurupa Hills in Riverside County. The climate, though tempered by winds from the ocean, is as warm as the northern San Joaquin Valley and is classed as Region IV.
Tiburcio Tapia planted the first vines in San Bernardino County on his Cucamonga Rancho in 1838. When the railroad arrived forty years later, others began growing grapes along the streams in the rich foothills north of Cucamonga and between Redlands and Banning in southern San Bernardino and northwestern Riverside County.
But nobody thought of planting vines or anything else in the vast flat, sandy waste in between, the Cucamonga desert, until Secondo Guasti came. Guasti arrived in Los Angeles in 1878 from the Italian Piedmont via Mexico, an unschooled, penniless youth. He shoveled coal in the freight yards, cooked in a restaurant, married the owner's daughter, and saved enough to start a small Los Angeles winery and to buy a vineyard in West Glendale. On occasional visits to the Cucamonga Valley, he noticed that the winter floods from the mountains flowed only as far as the desert and there disappeared. It occurred to Guasti that there might be water beneath the desert sand. One day he found a scraggly vine growing in the parched waste. Borrowing a shovel, he dug to find its root. Legend says that he discovered moisture after digging down twenty-four feet. Back in Los Angeles in 1900, Guasti organized the Italian Vineyard Company, selling shares to his countrymen. He bought eight square miles of the Cucamonga desert, built fences against rabbits, and planted a hundred varieties of grapes. He brought whole families from Italy to till the land and built an Italian town-which he named Guasti-with its own school, inn, general store, fire house, post office, and a church as lovely as those in the Italian countryside. Others planted in the desert, and more wineries were built. In 1911, Captain Paul Garrett acquired his 2000 acres at Cucamonga to grow grapes for Virginia Dare wine. By 1917, Guasti was advertising the IVC vineyard as "four thousand acres, the largest in the world." San Bernardino County had 20,000 acres of vineyards, more than in Sonoma and twice as many as in Napa County-when Prohibition came in 1920.
 | Sacramental - Altar Wines |
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| CHABLIS | | Pale straw color, crisp, fresh, dry and slightly tart. 12% alcohol by volume. |
| ROSÉ HAUTE SAUTERNE | | Popular Rose` Wine. Dark pink to amber in color, fresh, light body, slightly sweet and zesty similar to Rosé. 12% alcohol by volume. |
| HAUTE SAUTERNE | | Pale straw color, sweeter in taste like a true Sauterne wine 12% alcohol by volume. |
| LIGHT SWEET MUSCAT | | Light straw in color, very flavorful. Produced from Muscat grapes. Sweeter than Haut Sauterne, but not as sweet as Angelica. 12% alcohol by volume. |
| COMMUNION WINE | | Red in color, sweeter than a Rosé, lighter in color than red Burgundy wine. 12% alcohol by volume. |
| MUSCATEL | | Dark amber in color, sweet, produced from select Muscat grapes. Aged in the tradition of our award-winning Reserve Port, Sherries and Angelica wines. 18% alcohol by volume. |
| PORT | | Deep, dark red in color, sweet and aged for smoothness in 50 year-old redwood casks. A well-made Port wine from old Cucamonga-Guasti vines. 18% alcohol by volume. |
| ANGELICA | | Popular Sweet Guasti Altar Wine. Light golden to amber color, the most popular Guasti Altar selection. Sweet, light-bodied. A consistent award winner from old Cucamonga-Guasti vines! 18% alcohol by volume. |
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Serving the religious community for more than 70 years the Joseph Filippi Winery has been a proud supplier of fine altar wine for use by parishes. Today we continue that tradition into our fifth generation.
Please contact us so that we may fill your requirements at pkau@josephfilippiwinery.com
Distributed "winery-direct" in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange Counties (California).
Distributor Information: The following religious suppliers who proudly offer Guasti® Sacramental Wines:
California -
Colorado -
Massachusetts -
Michigan -
Pennsylvania -
Philadelphia - James Moroney Inc.
Toll free: (800) 562-9463
Office (215) 471-5300
Sales (724) 516-7792
Website: (sorry, no website at this time)
Email: mmmoroney@aol.com
Email: elabian@aol.com
Washington -
Tacoma - Vercillo's Catholic Book & Gift Store
3680 S Cedar St #E, Tacoma, WA 98409
Phone: (253) 471-8399
Fax: (253) 471-8398
Email: Vercillos@vercillos.com
Wisconsin -
Statewide - Jandrain Religious Supply
1482 Main Street, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54302
Toll Free: (800) 242-2700
Local: (920) 432-2758
Fax: (920) 432-2759
Email: jandrainrelsupply@att.net
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Patricia,
The sample bottles of Guasti wine arrived today. I hope to have a decision from my Bishop in the next few days re: an acceptable alternative to the Greek wine we are presently using. If favorable, I will contact West Coast Church Supplies in South San Francisco to place an order.
As an aside: At the same time that I contacted Joseph Filippi Winery with an inquiry about Communion wine, I also contacted three other California wineries which produce Communion wines. You were the only one to respond to my request for information. Not did you kindly reply, but you also offered to send three samples of Guasti Communion wines. Your courteous attention impressed me very much. Such service to potential customers speaks highly of those employed by Joseph Filippi Winery.
If my Bishop chooses one of the samples, I will advise our convent and local parish to order their Communion wine from West Coast Church Supply, as well. We have other parishes throughout the United States; I will gladly recommend that they seek a distributor of Guasti Wines in their regions.
Thank you very much for your help.
Sincerely,
Father Akakios
Abbot, St. Gregory Palamas Monastery
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Last update: 23 November, 2011
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