A seventeen year old boy from Greece came through Ellis island with his twin brothers. When he stepped on American soil he had a dream and a new last name- Christ (kr-ee-st) Alexander, instead of his Greek name Alexandratos.
His twin brothers traveled west, but Christ stayed on the East coast. He took any job he could, from waiting tables to selling fruit on the street corners. He worked hard and saved what money he could from every job he took.
When the United States declared war in 1917, Christ at the age of 28, joined the American Army. He was sent to France and fought there until he was wounded. Back in America with shrapnel in his leg and an Honorable Discharge, he received The Purple Heart.
He traveled from the east coast to the west coast stopping in many cities and towns looking for a place that reminded him of his hometown in Greece. Making money for his trip wasn’t always easy due to the pain in his leg. Finally he found what he was looking for in Lodi, California. The climate was perfect as was the land – a forty acre parcel of land that had 20 acres of zinfandel grape vines, olive trees, a house, barn, and a lot of oak trees. He bought the acreage with the money had had saved over the years.
In early 1929, at the age of forty, Christ returned to Greece seeking a wife. In the village of Focata, he found Eftechea Liveratos. An arrangement was made and on June 23rd they were married.
Together, they returned to Lodi. There were twenty acres of oak trees to clear, land to be leveled and Tokay vines to be planted. During this time their three children were born: George, Dennis, and Helen. Their next project was turning the existing barn into a winery, cementing the floors and buying redwood tanks. After the building improvements were complete, fifty pound boxes of picked grapes were brought in to the winery by truck. They were poured slowly into a two-roller crusher, then pumped into a tank where the seeds and skins rose to the top and became must and the juice underneath fermented. The fermented juice, now wine, was left to age from 6 months up to two years. The wine was then syphoned into sterilized gallon jugs.
So in 1934 with an official license, ALEXANDER WINERY began selling wine. Christ spent his lifetime dedicated to making wine and farming his grapes.