Italians were some of the first European explorers and settlers of California. While the majority of Italians settled in the urban centers of eastern California, many northern Italians came out west to the Pacific coast. One of these notable Italian immigrants was Andrea Sbarboro. 

Sbarboro was a businessman by heart and by nature, founding and managing, in part, five mutual savings and loan societies in the late 1800s. Sbarboro then created a profit-sharing agricultural cooperative. The co-op’s focus would be grape-growing and winemaking. Sbarboro called his venture the Italian-Swiss Agricultural Association, named for the Italian Swiss immigrants from Ticino who settled in the area.