382 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1910 



A Pompeian Villa With a California Background 



By Horatio F. Stoll 



The foothills and the vine clad floor of the Russian River valley as seen from the villa porch 



NE of the show places of Cahfornia is the and of Southern Europe, who had seen the grapes purple 



Italian-Swiss Agricultural Colony at Asti, 

 in Sonoma County. Thirty years ago, 

 when the Colony was founded, the spot 

 where the Sonoma Asti beautifies the 

 landscape was only a sheep ranch. The 

 uninviting foothills were covered with 

 poorly nourished grass and thick underbrush. Learned 

 viticultural experts, nevertheless, after inspecting all see- 



under the sun's kisses in those climes and had quaffed with 

 delight the vintages abroad. They sought the exposures 

 on the hillsides of the new Asti that were the same as 

 they had known at home, and planted the choicest im- 

 ported vines. The clusters came in perfection and before 

 long a red tide, every drop bearing vigor and health, 

 gushed from the juicy crushings. 



The directors of the young Colony were delighted. 



tions of the State, informed the little coterie of progressive They now felt confident that in this beautiful Russian Val- 

 Italians, who were anxious to provide employment for 

 deserving immigrants out of work, that the soil there was 

 practically a counterpart of the mother district across the 

 seas and admirably 

 suited for the grow- 

 ing of grapes; and 

 the charming land- 

 scape one now be- 

 holds, of vine and 

 villa, picturesque 

 colonists' quarters, 

 and rose-covered 

 wineries, is an im- 

 pressive object les- 

 son of what can 

 be accomplished by 

 brains and pluck. 



So the land was 

 bought and from it, 

 first, had to be 

 grubbed the growth 

 of madrone and 

 oak and the under- 

 brush that prevent- 

 ed cultivation. All 

 the laborers were 

 men whose homes 

 had been amidst the 

 vine-clad slopes of 

 the Mediterranean 



A vista through the marble columned entrance 



ley, with its rolling hills, proper soil and abundant rains, 

 they would be able to produce as pure and as delicious wines 

 as those from which the old Asti of Piedmont had won 



its fame. 



And in time, they 

 did make fine wines. 

 But their struggle 

 for recognition was 

 not the sailing of a 

 dory on a summer 

 sea. There were 

 disasters that might 

 have balked men 

 with less courage or 

 faith in their ulti- 

 mate success. Three 

 times the Colony 

 was in dire distress 

 because of the low 

 price of grapes, 

 and three times grit, 

 intelligence and per- 

 severance tided 

 them over the dis- 

 couraging periods. 



During all this 

 time, the sharehold- 

 ers received abso- 

 lutely nothing from 

 their investment. 



