Edmund A. Rossi Jr.; Prizewinning Winemaker

Edmund A. Rossi Jr., who carried out his family’s century-old tradition of making inexpensive quality wines for Italian Swiss Colony winery, has died. He was 72.

Rossi, whose family once owned the ISC winery in Asti, Calif., died Monday in an Oakland hospital. He had suffered a stroke in 1992.

Following in the tradition of his grandfather and father, Rossi was chief winemaker at Asti from 1945 until 1975 and then continued his work at a winery in Madera. The Rossi family, along with Enrico Prati, owned Italian Swiss Colony from the 1920s until World War II, when it was acquired by National Distillers. Other owners have included Heublein and in recent years a cooperative of wine grape growers much like the originators.

Despite difficult times through a variety of ownerships, the winery continued to produce prizewinning vintages, a credit to the Rossi skill. In 1985, Rossi’s cabernet sauvignon won one of seven Gold Medals among 108 entries at the prestigious Los Angeles County Fair judging.

When a Times wine writer asked to sample different bottles from the prizewinning 40,000-case batch, Rossi gladly complied and showed no surprise when the taster pronounced them all uniformly excellent.

Italian Swiss Colony was founded in 1881 by Andrea Sbarbobo as an agricultural cooperative of Swiss and Italian immigrants. Pietro Rossi, Edmund’s grandfather, was the first head winemaker and became president of the organization in 1888.

Rossi’s father, Edmund Sr., headed Italian Swiss Colony for 25 years and in 1948 became manager of the San Francisco-based Wine Advisory Board set up by California vintners under the state Department of Agriculture.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Rossi Jr. was active in several organizations within the industry, including the Wine Institute and the American Society for Enology and Viticulture.

He is survived by two daughters, Christine of Denver and Therese of San Diego; a son, Brandt, of Alameda, a sister and two grandsons.