Verdugo Views: Toasting a wine-maker's success in Glendale

By Katherine Yamada

March 9, 2016 3:45 PM PT

Charles B. Pironi, an Italian immigrant trained as a pharmacist, arrived in Los Angeles in 1880 and set up shop.

He did so well that, 10 years later, he joined fellow Italian immigrants in the winemaking business.

He began by purchasing an abandoned building that was once a tourist hotel on San Fernando Road, just south of the confluence of Verdugo Creek and the Los Angeles River — or as we know it today — the site of a huge orange and white building on San Fernando between Milford and Doran streets.

The hotel that Pironi purchased was built after railroad rate wars created the 1886-88 land boom.

However, it wasn’t built in time to take advantage of the boom and went bankrupt, according to Stuart Byles, of Stone Barn Vineyard Conservancy, a support group for the 700-plus acre Le Mesnager property in Dunsmore Canyon.

The property, acquired by the city of Glendale in 1988 and now known as Deukmejian Wilderness Park, has 71 grapevines that were planted in 2004. They are maintained by the conservancy, a part of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

Byles, who researched local newspaper archives to find fascinating aspects of the history of Pironi’s winery, wrote about the winemaker for the conservancy’s membership and recently shared his information with me via email.

After Pironi purchased the property, he and his wife — a granddaughter of Spanish ranchero Jose Sepulveda — and three children, made the place their home and he set out to create the West Glendale Winery.

Pironi’s new property was in the midst of an “Italian area” of wineries and vineyards, including the long-established Pelanconi vineyard across Verdugo Creek.

Pironi had another neighbor, Segundo Guasti, who went on to found a vineyard and winery in the Cucamonga Valley. That 5,000-contiguous-acre vineyard was the largest in the world in 1900, according to Byle’s research.

His wine business developed so quickly that Pironi was soon hard-pressed to keep up with orders from all over the country. He began buying grapes from surrounding vineyards and even purchased Zinfandel grapes grown on the far-off Santa Cruz Island by a French immigrant winemaker.

Although Pironi’s winery was one of the least known in the area, it was — for a time — a very large operation. The Los Angeles Herald, on Sept. 3, 1903, trumpeted that the large vintage expected that year showed his production was exceeded only by Guasti’s Cucamonga winery and by two in east Pasadena.

In September 1901, the 60-year-old Pironi was approaching his office in the Baker Block building in Los Angeles. Bystanders suddenly saw him “clap his hands to his head,” cry out, and tumble head first out of his buggy. An ambulance took him to the hospital, where he died 30 minutes later.

His winery was bought by H.S. Baer, who continued the booming wine trade started by Pironi. He changed the name to the Los Angeles Wine Co. around 1905.

It is not known when the winery finally closed its doors, but Byles speculated that more than likely Prohibition put an end to the operation in 1920. The building went into other uses and was torn down in 1971.

He added, however, the memory of the winemaking history of this place lives on in the city’s official name for the area: the Vineyard neighborhood.

Readers Write:

A sharp-eyed reader, Donna McDonald, emailed regarding the photo caption used with the Great White Hut story on Feb. 25. The caption said the view was looking north on Brand, but as she pointed out, the photo was taken on Orange. Unfortunately, it was an editing error in the print edition.

The street is properly identified in the online version. McDonald added that she recognized the “Sears parking structure built in ’55 or ’56 when I was working part time there. Part of Sears Auto Center sign is behind a palm tree on the left. Brand Boulevard is to the right in the photo. Always look forward to your column.”

And, since she grew up in downtown Glendale, she also remembered the “tent lady.”

Kathy Yuki emailed: “Like many others, I remember the tent lady, and as a child in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, was intrigued every time we passed her “home” on Canada Boulevard. She recalled another area character, a tiny, wizened man who “apparently lived and worked on a chicken ranch where La Crescenta Nursery is now. He could be seen regularly walking on La Crescenta Avenue near the nursery, pulling a wagon. Old-timers may also remember the auto-wrecking yard that used to occupy the land near the wash east of La Crescenta Ave., where the housing development at Urquidez Avenue is now. So much has changed over the decades, it’s fun to recall long-demolished buildings and forgotten history.”

KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com. or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o Glendale News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.

Verdugo Views: Toasting a wine-maker’s success in Glendale