DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, picture the state of Texas — a place that once had about twenty-five bonded wineries scattered across its wide geography. Twenty-five.
And of all of them, every last one, only a single winery is still standing. Still operating. Still making wine.
That's the Val Verde Winery down in Del Rio, and its story starts with one man stepping off, presumably, a very long journey. Frank Qualia came in 1882 to Del Rio — which at the time was a town of exactly two hundred souls — all the way from Milan, Italy. Two hundred people.
That's not a town, friends, that's a disagreement waiting to happen. But Frank Qualia saw something there worth putting down roots for. The very next year, in 1883, he married Mary Frank.
Together they built a family that would fill a Sunday dinner table: John, Chris, Margaret, Charles, Mary Louis, and Jeanne. Six children. The Qualias and their neighbors got to work the way people do when they come from somewhere with a deep tradition — they planted vineyards and made wine in the old country way.
And here's a detail that ought to make a person stop and appreciate what they knew back then: the original winery building is still in use, kept cool not by any modern contraption, but by eighteen-inch adobe walls. Eighteen inches of adobe, doing exactly what it was always meant to do. In time the winery passed along within the family.
Louis Qualia and his wife Kathleen carry it forward, working with Spanish Lenoir and Herbemont grapes, turning out two thousand gallons of wine every year. Twenty-five wineries once dotted this state, and the years took them all — except the one that Frank Qualia started in a town of two hundred people, with old country hands and adobe walls thick enough to outlast just about everything else.
What the marker says
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)