Domenico Galleano was born to Bernardo and Maddalena on October 17, 1888 in Benevegienne Italy. In 1890 his family moved to Magliano Alpi, in Italy’s Northern Piedmonte region where Domenico and his 7 brothers and sisters were raised. In 1906 Domenico made his first trip to the United States, returning to Italy the next year. In 1908 he
joined the Italian Army and spent the next four years in service to his country.
On March 8, 1913 he married Lucia Blengino in their home town Magliano Alpi and 15 days later he, his brother Giovanni (John) and his new wife arrived in the United States. There they joined Angelo, Domenico’s older brother, who had already established himself in Huntington Park, California. The brothers dry-farmed, doing all field work by hand and selling their crops by the roadside and to the locals in the area. In 1918, the brothers joined the Bora family purchasing the 300 acre Bonita Ranch, located on Archibald Avenue south of Riverside Drive in what is now Ontario.
In 1927, Domenico and Lucia Galleano, including their children Bernard (Nino) born 1914, and Maddalena born in 1918, purchased the 160-acre Cantu ranch in the Wineville area of the Cucamonga Valley thus founding their own producing winery. The property was purchased from the Col. Esteban Cantu family. The Cantu family developed the ranch on the east side of Wineville Road with residence, barn, outbuildings, and vineyard. Wineville Road dates from at least 1890 when it functioned as the western access for proposed new development known as the “West Coast Development Co. Subdivision”.
The Galleanos began wine making in the basement of their new home shortly after relocating, remodeling their rudimentary basement with concrete walls, floors and drains. Remodeling also took place on the upper floors as Domenico Galleano reshaped the older home to fit the needs of his family. Marks in the concrete driveway on the south side of the Cantu/Galleano residence indicate that Domenico completed remodeling during 1931.
Domenico Galleano’s work remodeling, planting vineyard, and preparing space for wine storage, took place despite the major blow to the Cucamonga Valley’s expanding vineyards, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the constitution in 1919, known simply as “prohibition”. This national ban on the production and sale, not to mention the consumption of alcoholic beverage posed new challenges to the valley’s wine makers. Federal law allowed home production of alcohol, and many across the nation used Cucamonga grapes for this small scale production.
Sacramental, kosher, and medicinal wines were produced, and although very difficult to document, bootlegging and illegal sale of wine was probably very common in the valley. Much was at stake, as in 1920 San Bernardino County has over 20,000 acres in grape cultivation most of that in the Cucamonga growing area. This acreage surpassed grape cultivation in Sonoma County and was twice that of Napa County. Unlike most farmers during the great Depression, many of California’s grape growers survived, as Prohibition stimulated the domestic market for grapes, grape juice to make into wine, raisins, and of course wine. The Cucamonga Valley was one of the nation’s largest suppliers of wine grapes to the Eastern United States and Canada.
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the area’s wine industry revived. Over the next quarter century, Cucamonga Valley grew faster than any wine region in the United States. By 1939, the valley was crushing more than 61,027 tons of grapes for a total production of 6,220,693 gallons of wine. In the 1940s, there were more than 45,000 acres devoted to vineyards in the area, and approximately 60 wineries.
In the Cucamonga Valley, the tens of thousands of acres were tended by an increasingly permanent labor force comprised of Mexican and Mexican-American workers. It was discovered that growing grapes required enormous man-hours, with each vine planted, picked and pruned by hand. Like other smaller vintners in the Valley, the Galleanos built a small bunkhouse to house workers during the intense harvest months. The shared religious background between Italians and Mexican Americans and the growing personal relationships of workers and owner families created an atmosphere and great cohesiveness and cooperation.
The Galleano vineyards prospered under the hard work of Domenico and his son Bernard (Nino). With Prohibition still in effect, the Galleano’s were among the vintners in the area who ostensibly only sold grapes for home wine production. Along with the rest of the Italian American wine making community in the valley, the Galleanos viewed Prohibition as an unnecessary hindrance and nuisance. Wine, after all, formed a crucial part of the Italian dietary staple since Roman Times. From 1927 to 1933, Galleano wine was produced in the cellar of the Galleano/Cantu residence for personal consumption. After 1933, the winery opened as a commercial business, using one of the existing outbuildings, west of the residence, as the winery. The Cantu/Galleano residence’s basement continued to serve as an important storage area between 7,000 and 8,000 gallons of wine.
The Galleano’s expanded their cultivation of acreage and varieties of grapes to include Zinfandel, Grenache, Mourvedre, Muscat of Alexandria, Burger and local Mission grapes. Between 1947 and 1950 Nino oversaw the construction of new wine-making facility to accommodate the growth of winery. A large impressive facility, the new winery greatly expanded the production capacity of Galleano winery and the adjacent tasting room and retail shop served an ever-expanding clientèle.
Our local Zinfandel had its beginnings in Domenico’s time. Deep raspberry in color, this Zinfandel is full of character with full fruit flavor and a hint of current. Besides being Donald’s daily wine choice, Galleano winery’s Zinfandel symbolizes the valley’s history.
