My friend Beth told me about this winery located near Downtown L.A. A winery near downtown? I imagined a vineyard in Skid Row….that doesn’t sound very tasty. But apparently it really is.
About a hundred years ago, the L.A. River was lined with wineries, but then Prohibition jolted the wine industry. San Antonio Winery survived only because its founder, Santo Cambianica, made a deal with the Catholic Church to supply its sacramental wines. And Beth, a self-professed “big whino,” can attest to the quality of their wines as she partook of the winery’s free wine tasting. Turns out the vineyard isn’t in Skid Row but rather Monterey and Napa Valley with other sources in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles and Sonoma–yes, Wine Country. San Antonio just bottles the stuff in the Los Angeles plant.
There’s also a lovely restaurant on the premises called Maddalena Restaurant. And, the wine tasting (with three tastes maximum) as well as the winery tour are free.
About Maddalena, from CitySearch:
A vaulted hall, stacked with wine barrels, is filled with downtown businessfolk and loft-dwelling artists eating cafeteria-style lunches. California-inspired dishes are tasty and pair with the house wines, available by the bottle or the glass. Penne pasta with salmon is paired with vodka sauce, while spinach-ricotta ravioli is flavored with a medley of herbs.
For those who want to learn more about wine, the winery also offers seminars which include lunch or dinner and run about $65 a person.
Other Eastside friends know about San Antonio and absolutely love it. L.A. has its own winery after all. Who knew?
737 Lamar St
Los Angeles, California 90031
(323) 223-1401
Cross Street: Main Street
Wine tours: weekdays 12pm-2pm and weekends 11am-4pm
Hi! My name is Dienna and I work with the San Antonio Winery doing their Public Relations and am helping them get started with their blog!
We really appreciate your blog post on us. It was nice to have your link pop up after doing a blog search on the Winery. I couldn’t tell from your post…have you been to the Winery? Maybe one of these days you can make it to one of our seminars!
If you do come to visit, please make sure to ask for a family member and say hello. Steve, Sr. and Maddalena (both in their 80′s) are there every day – as are their children Santo, Steve Jr. and Kathy. They really appreciate your post and would love to meet you.
Creating a blog is an exciting step for everyone at the Winery! The ultimate goal will be to have the Riboli family, who own the Winery, maintain the blog on a day-to-day basis, but until it is up and running I’m researching who has been blogging about us and saying hello!
Again, thanks so much for blogging about us!