Val Verde Winery
Del Rio, Val Verde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Known as Texas' oldest bonded winery; only survivor of about 25 once operated in the state. Founded by Frank Qualia, who came in 1882 to Del Rio (then a town of 200) from Milan, Italy. In 1883 he married Mary Frank. Their children were John, Chris, Margaret, Charles, Mary Louis, and Jeanne. The Qualias and neighbors planted vineyards and made wine in old country tradition. Original winery, still in use, is kept cool by 18-inch adobe walls. Louis Qualia and wife Kathleen use Spanish Lenoir and Herbemont grapes in making 2000 gallons of wine yearly. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Frank Qualia left Milan, Italy, and reached the small border town of Del Rio in 1882, planting vineyards and making wine in the old-country style. His Val Verde Winery survived Prohibition and the collapse of Texas's roughly two dozen early wineries to become the state's oldest bonded winery, still cooled by its original 18-inch adobe walls. Generations of the Qualia family have kept it producing.
Why it matters
Val Verde is a rare living link to the immigrant winemakers who brought European craft traditions to the American Southwest and kept them alive through hard decades.
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Related people
- · Frank Qualia
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Born in 1854 near Brescia, Italy, John Taini trained as a stonemason before an American contractor recruited him to work abroad. After building stone structures for the U.S. Army at Fort Clark, he settled in Del Rio, part of a wave of Italian immigrants who arrived in the 1880s, and put his hands on much of the growing town — the Val Verde County Courthouse, churches, railroad housing, jails, bridges, and dams across San Felipe Creek. Beyond the stone he laid, Taini donated land, served as an election judge, and helped lead the Italian Catholic Cemetery before his death in 1929.
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