Angelo Sangiacomo, 1930-2023

Angelo Sangiacomo helped pioneer the creation of California vineyard-designated and single vineyard wines.

Angelo Sangiacomo, a pioneering winegrower and founder of Sangiacomo Family Vineyards in Sonoma, died on Feb. 27. He was 92.

Over the course of his nine-decade career in agriculture, Sangiacomo helped steer his family’s business through the transition from farming fruit-tree orchards to growing winegrapes—with Sangiacomo Family Vineyards emerging to become one of the largest family-owned, premium winegrowing businesses in California.

Angelo Clement Sangiacomo was born in Sonoma on Aug. 24, 1930 to Italian immigrants Vittorio and Maria Sangiacomo, who three years before had relocated from San Francisco to Sonoma Valley to become farmers.

From an early age, Sangiacomo displayed a passion for agriculture and working to improve the family business. “Even as a young boy, he always knew the market price for pears which sold during this period for as little as $20 per ton,” his family said in a statement. “He began working in the fields at the age of 6, picking and packing pears and figs for shipment.”

Following his college years at UC Davis, where he studied viticulture and pomology, Sangiacomo returned to Sonoma in his early 20s and was designated by his father as the spokesperson for the family business.

His biggest challenge arrived early in his career when he successfully navigated the family through the risky shift from farming fruit-tree orchards to growing winegrapes following the decline of the pear market in Sonoma County beginning in the 1960s, according to his family. “Angelo, along with his three siblings—Lorraine, Buck and Bob (deceased in 2006)—planted the family’s first vineyard, Green Acres, in 1969 and bravely looked toward the future of the wine industry,” they said.

Among his legacy of accomplishments in the wine industry, Sangiacomo helped pioneer the creation of California vineyard-designated and single vineyard wines. The 1979 Gundlach-Bundschu Chardonnay Sangiacomo Vineyards was among the first Californian wines to carry a vineyard designation on its wine label. Today the family sells grapes to more than 80 premium wineries, many of which produce wines that carry the Sangiacomo Vineyard designation. Sangiacomo also recognized the importance of carving out prestigious viticultural areas and was instrumental in the creation in 1982 of the Carneros appellation spanning the southern tips of Sonoma and Napa Valleys.

He credited “much of his good fortune to falling in love with his wife, Diane,” his family said. “For over 50 years, she provided undying support, advice and a steady hand behind the scenes” while raising their three children— Mike, Steve and Mia (Pucci) Sangiacomo, who run the business today.

“Our father was a role model in every way; he led with his genuine spirit to inspire his family, most importantly his children and grandchildren,” Steve Sangiacomo said. “We cherished his guidance to be the best person we could be along with the fortitude to lead our family business into the next generation.”

As Sangiacomo reflected on his life toward the end, said his family, he was quoted as saying, “If I had the choice, I’d do it all over again the same.”

He is survived by his wife, Diane, children Michael Sangiacomo (Whitney), Mia Pucci (Michael), and Steven Sangiacomo (Connie); sister Lorraine Sangiacomo and brother Victor “Buck” Sangiacomo (Susan); and grandchildren Joseph, Julia, Robert, Andrew and Samuel Sangiacomo; and Michaela and Dominic Pucci.

A rosary will be held at St. Francis Solano Church in Sonoma on Sunday, March 5 at 6 p,m. A funeral mass is planned for St. Francis Solano Church on Monday, March 6 at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials may be made to the charity of their choice.