Join Us in Supporting Our CommUNITY

This year, we’re excited to announce that we have selected Unity Shoppe as our charity partner for this year’s Grassini Gives Back Fundraiser! Unity Shoppe was founded over 100 years ago, and remains committed to building a network of support for residents facing unforeseen crises by offering free essential services.

Unity provides Santa Barbara residents in need with groceries, clothing and other essentials, as well as holiday gifts and school supplies, as well as on-the-job training. Unity plays a crucial role as a social safety net for Santa Barbara County. Their goal is to provide essentials while helping to reinforce human dignity and encourage self-sufficiency and independence.

Grassini Gives Back is an annual charity fundraiser that held each year in December. It is the 13th year, and it really has grown incredibly, thanks to the generosity of the community! Over the past eleven years, Grassini has over $789,813 for various local charities, and we’re excited to do some more good this year!

There are so many incredible opportunities to support Unity Shoppe! Just from Online, Cash, Check and Telethon donations, we have the ability to raise $140,000!! That’s not even including the donations from tastings, bottles and the Wine Club!

Instead of joining the rest of the family at church on Sundays, Larry Grassini’s grandfather Articondo Grassini was more religious about keeping a garden. Articondo came to the United States from Pisa, Italy in the early 1900s with his wife Afiora Tinucci. He would stay home on Sundays to make that evening’s ravioli from the green bounty of his garden, while enjoying a glass of wine (or two)…. He also kept several chickens as part of his garden. As a nod to Grandpa Articondo, industrious fowl roam our vineyard while sustainably fertilizing the vines.

Larry’s father Leo Peter Grassini—when not making ravioli on Sundays—was equally passionate about keeping a garden to grow much of the family’s food. He shared his love for the soil with his children and grandchildren, and this firmly-entrenched tradition has been lovingly passed on and extended to include a vegetable garden that has been planted at the vineyard.

These earthy traditions have now been entrusted to the third and fourth generations. From day one, Larry’s wife Sharon and daughters Katie, Corey, Mandy and Molly have been there in support of this exciting and enriching undertaking. At Grassini Family Vineyards and Winery, our extended family’s passion for beauty, the commitment to hard work and a memorable place all come together to make the wine in bottles bearing our family’s label something special. It is our hope that you will enjoy the poetry of the wine and its sense of place and tradition with your friends and family. Articondo would have been proud.