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How One Winery Prospered Under Prohibition

San Antonio Winery Tasting Room. Source: Sanantoniowinery.com

For the most part, Prohibition was fantastically destructive of the American drinks industry. Producers were driven out of business, and thirsty citizens had to source their tipple from illicit sources.

But, some firms did prosper. Amy Scattergood has an enjoyable article in the June 2012 Smithsonian Magazine on the San Antonio Winery. This immigrant-started company “struck a deal to continue to make sacramental wine during Prohibition…Before Prohibition, San Antonio was a small winery, making about 5,000 cases of red wine, the kind of wine that was sold “family-size,” or in jug form, to local immigrants and five area churches. By the time Prohibition ended, it was producing 20,000 cases. Today, San Antonio Winery is the largest supplier of sacramental wine in the country”… (read more)
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