Bronco Wine Company

Wine company based in Ceres in the San Joaquin Valley in California, one of the largest in the world. The artificial word "Bronco" was formed from "Brotherand Cousin", connected by "n" (from the "and"). The company is owned by Fred Franzia (*1944), who runs it as CEO, his brother Joseph and both cousins John Franzia. Fred's grandfather Guiseppe Franzia and his wife Teresa immigrated from Genoa, Italy in 1893 and acquired 80 acres of vineyards in the Central Valley. One of their daughters named Amalie married wine legend Ernest Gallo (1909-2007), who was therefore Fred Franzia's uncle.

Foundation of Franzia Brothers Winery

Wine was produced on a small scale until just before Prohibition. After prohibition was lifted, the five sons of the couple (including Fred's father Joe) founded the "Franzia Brothers Winery" in 1933. Three of the brothers sold their shares against the will of the other two in 1971 for a ridiculous sum of one million dollars each. The remaining two brothers, including Fred's father, then sold the winery in 1973 for 50 million dollars to the new majority owner Coca-Cola Bottling Company. This also included the right to use the Franzia name. In the course of a management buy-out of Coca Cola's wine activities, the company was merged into the Multi Wine Group in 1981.

To read the full text, you must be a Premium Member of wein.plus. You are currently not logged in to wein.plus. Become a Premium Member or log in with your credentials .

Become a Premium Member of wein.plus

Voices of our members

wein.plus is a handy, efficient guide to a quick overview of the colourful world of wines, winegrowers and grape varieties. In Wine lexicon, the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, you will find around 26,000 keywords on the subject of grape varieties, wineries, wine-growing regions and much more.
Roman Horvath MW
Domäne Wachau (Wachau)

Welcome back!

Bronco Wine Company

Foundation of Franzia Brothers Winery

To read the full text, you must be a Premium Member of wein.plus. You are currently not logged in to wein.plus. Become a Premium Member or log in with your credentials .

Voices of our members

The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

EVENTS NEAR YOU