Bedolla Family

Bedolla Family Story

Bedolla family photo
Angie Bedolla

Julia and Pete had five children: sons LiBrado (Lee) and Joseph, and daughters Rosa, Ramona and Amador and a total of 10 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

Though the family started out in the LA area, when racial riots broke out there, the family moved north to Rutherford.

During the Bracero era, Pete and crossed paths with folks like Christian Brothers Brother Timothy, and Chuck Wagner and his father Charlie of Caymus vineyards. Pete’s son Lee and some others actually saved Charlie’s life when they managed to rescue him by lifting a large tree that had fallen on him. Their friendship was such that Charlie was a frequent visitor to the family home.

The labor camp where the brothers worked on Silverado Trail was later used in the film THIS EARTH IS MINE, as the home for one of the characters in the film.

Son Lee decided that he was also uncomfortable living in LA, but he didn’t want to leave future wife Angela “Angie” behind, so he “kidnapped” her and came north to help his dad at the camps. Even though her cousin tried to talk her out of it, she climbed out of her cousins’ window to escape. As there were 10 children in her family, it took a while for the parents to notice!

Angie & Lee had three Daughters, Julie, Chris, Veronica and one son Erick. While living in Rutherford, there was an old bar called the “Old Oaken Bucket” on the SE corner of 29 and Rutherford road – when the school bus was coming, the owner and barkeep Marie would come outside to escort the kids across the road.

Both Angie and Lee contributed to the wine industry with mom at the winery at Beaulieu and dad was in vineyard management and then later when André Tchelistcheff and Mike Grgich set up their own wineries, he worked right alongside them.

Angie Bedolla began working at the Beaulieu Winery and she apprenticed later under Hans Cornell and later under Madame du Pin, a daughter of Georges de la Tour, the founder of Beaulieu where she learned the authentic French champagne “hands-on” methods. After Georges died, she took over and continued for many years at Beaulieu, later transferring to the same winery as Lee across Highway 29 alongside Tchelistcheff and Grgich.

Julia and Pete had five children: sons LiBrado (Lee) and Joseph, and daughters Rosa, Ramona and Amador and a total of 10 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

Though the family started out in the LA area, when racial riots broke out there, the family moved north to Rutherford.

During the Bracero era, Pete and crossed paths with folks like Christian Brothers Brother Timothy, and Chuck Wagner and his father Charlie of Caymus vineyards. Pete’s son Lee and some others actually saved Charlie’s life when they managed to rescue him by lifting a large tree that had fallen on him. Their friendship was such that Charlie was a frequent visitor to the family home.

The labor camp where the brothers worked on Silverado Trail was later used in the film THIS EARTH IS MINE, as the home for one of the characters in the film.

Son Lee decided that he was also uncomfortable living in LA, but he didn’t want to leave future wife Angela “Angie” behind, so he “kidnapped” her and came north to help his dad at the camps. Even though her cousin tried to talk her out of it, she climbed out of her cousins’ window to escape. As there were 10 children in her family, it took a while for the parents to notice!

Angie & Lee had three Daughters, Julie, Chris, Veronica and one son Erick. While living in Rutherford, there was an old bar called the “Old Oaken Bucket” on the SE corner of 29 and Rutherford road – when the school bus was coming, the owner and barkeep Marie would come outside to escort the kids across the road.Both Angie and Lee contributed to the wine industry with mom at the winery at Beaulieu and dad was in vineyard management and then later when André Tchelistcheff and Mike Grgich set up their own wineries, he worked right alongside them.

Angie Bedolla began working at the Beaulieu Winery and she apprenticed later under Hans Cornell and later under Madame du Pin, a daughter of Georges de la Tour, the founder of Beaulieu where she learned the authentic French champagne “hands-on” methods. After Georges died, she took over and continued for many years at Beaulieu, later transferring to the same winery as Lee across Highway 29 alongside Tchelistcheff and Grgich.

Pete and Julia’s daughter Rose “Rosie” worked for the family who owned the Tripoli Family Market – the site where Dean & DeLuca now stands. During the period when several Hollywood films were being made here, she was one of the infamous clerks in the market, and thru that checkout line, met such illustrious actors as Rock Hudson, Rod Steiger, Richard Egan and many others, and she once met Elvis Presley in a vineyard!

Son Lee was friends since childhood with Tim Mondavi and Stephen Taplin, and the story is that the trio would get on the conveyor belts at the winery and play on them…some went downhill so it was great fun!

Daughter Chris met future husband Fred Fabre while both attended Robert Louis Stephenson Junior High in the 60s. His father was an International Captain with TWA and they moved from San Francisco to the Oakville area in 1964.

School chum Dee McFarland (of the Lincoln family also participating on Saturday), and Chris pulled a prank on newly arrived Fred and stole his jacket to flirt with him. Chris and Fred became sweethearts in high school and married several years later. They have two children, son Ian, born in 1980 a graphic artist working at the Lawrence Livermore Lab, and daughter Tessa, born in 1985, is a logistics manager for the startup company CAMP. She and her husband are expecting their first child at the end of May.