Very few vineyards were planted in the county in the late 1870s and early 1880s, but a substantial 49,210 gallons of wine were produced by 64 winemakers and 112 growers on 312 acres in 1880 (State Board of Viticultural Commissioners 1880). The Italian winemakers, however, continued to prosper. Angelo Sciaccaluga (Pyshon) was first taxed for wine that year, on his one-quarter acre Vallecito vineyard with 150 gallons of wine; by 1889 he had added a distillery to his operation. In later years the winery was described by his daughter Lottie Pyshon Stephens:
My father had two cellars, one where he crushed his grapes and one where he stored his wine. One was called the distillery, and the other the wine cellar. My father made table and sweet wine. He had a well that ran water on both sides of the cellar, kept the sand wet all the time and the cellar cool. The distillery was torn down after the place was sold but the wine cellar still stands today [on the north side of Highway 4] 1:3).