The Pio Story

The Pio family has been in the wine business for three generations, and it continues today by importing only the highest quality Italian wines.

A Family Heritage in Wine

To make the wine in 1938, the Pio family had facilities on both the east and west coast. In Cucamonga, California, the grapes were grown and harvested, then crushed and the fermentation process begun. The wine was shipped by rail in glass-lined tank cars to Philadelphia for final aging and bottling. The Pio Philadelphia Winery had storage capacity for one million gallons for aging in redwood and oak tanks (upright) and casks (on sides). Skilled craftsmen from Europe were brought in to construct the storage facilities. When properly aged, the wine was filtered and bottled at the Philadelphia Winery, which could bottle five thousand cases a day.

In 1964, Bartolomeo Pio, the patriarch of the Pio family, sold the family winery and transitioned from local wine maker to international wine importer and distributor. The families first hand wine knowledge and experience allowed them to market and sell wines from all over the world, providing their customers a greater number of wine options. Pio Imports began to import Pio Cesare wines from their cousins in the Piemonte region in Italy, making accessible the highest quality, world famous Italian wines.

The Next Chapter

In 1976 Bartolomeo Pio’s son, Elmo, heavily involved in the family wine distribution business, traveled to Italy to not only explore traditional Italian wines, but to look for new and different wines that he personally enjoyed. During one such visit, Elmo discovered a traditional Italian wine that he felt the American consumer would embrace. Its refreshing, sweet, lightly effervescent flavor was different then anything on the market. His confidence in this wine prompted him to label, bottle and import his own line of fine Italian wines. With that decision, the legend of Elmo Pio Moscato was born. Marketed by the man himself, in his trademark hat. Elmo’s commitment to quality lives on in the bottles that carry his image and name.

The Pio Family Legacy

After Elmo's passing in 1996, his children have worked to further their father's legacy by continuing to import quality wines from Italy. Using the skills and knowledge that was imparted to them, Elmo Pio Wines continue to evolve to include new products to match modern tastes, never faltering from the high standards of quality that their Father insisted upon as well as the pledge to stay "Forever Italian".