Yankee Brew News Archive

Fermenting for Three Generations: Connecticut's Cocchia Family

Originally Published: 07/95

By: Gregg Glaser

Peter Cocchia of Norwalk, Connecticut, is the third generation member of his family to sell wine grapes to home winemakers. He sells tons and tons of grapes each autumn in both Norwalk and Bridgeport. He sells them by the tandem trailer load.

So why write about him in a beer newspaper? Because, as Cocchia said in a recent interview in his South Norwalk store, Homemade Libations, there is a noticeable interest by his winemaker customers in homebrewing and an appreciation of quality beers. "I find that most of my winemaking customers enjoy good beer as well as wine, and vice versa. There is crossover between the two and I see no reason why not. The making and drinking of good fermentable beverages go together."

Cocchia's roots in winemaking, and homebrewing, go back to 1913 when his grandfather and grandmother opened Connecticut's first Italian-American grocery store in the Whistleville section of South Norwalk. His grandfather, Rafael, would buy grapes for his wine customers at the Washington Market in New York City. The process took an entire day, since the mode of transportation was horse and wagon for the almost 120-mile round trip journey. In later years the grapes came to Norwalk on the railroad by the boxcar load, followed in the 1960s, until today, in tandem trailers.

At the same time the elder Cocchias sold grapes and groceries, they also sold homebrewing supplies. These sales started before Prohibition and continued during and after the "Noble Experiment". "Many of my grandparent's customers were Italian immigrants and were used to making their own wine, beer and foods in the Old Country. Also, they weren't rich enough to buy all the commercially prepared foods that we, today, might take for granted. Selling grapes and grains and hops and yeast and so forth was a natural thing to do," said Cocchia.

In 1934, just after Repeal, Cocchia's father, Domenic, opened a liquor store near the grocery store, and he continued the grape business. Peter Cocchia grew up around the two stores and the grape-selling business, but he never expected to own them. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Dayton and in 1972 earned a graduate degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. As an ROTC student he immediately entered the army as a lieutenant, and was given his first assignment in Turkey as an intelligence officer. He remained in the army for twelve years, leaving in 1984 as a major with tours of duty in Germany and Korea, always in intelligence. "It was a 'real world' assignment. The cold war was on, and we felt the threat from the Soviets or Chinese was always there," said Cocchia.

Three and a half years in Germany gave Cocchia a wonderful introduction to and a great love for well-made beer. "I guess I have a bias towards German beer because of the time I spent in Germany," said Cocchia. "I suppose my favorite style of beer would be a well-made Pils, followed closely by a Helles. As far as ales go, my favorite there is a Brown Ale. But I'm an eclectic beer drinker, trying and enjoying most all styles. Even those fancy Belgian beers." Cocchia recently attended a meeting of the local homebrew club, the Underground Brewers of Connecticut, on a night when the club had as a guest Don Fineberg of Vanberg and Dewulf, importers of many Belgian ales. Cocchia received a good introduction to these unique beers that night.

Cocchia left the military and returned to Norwalk in 1984 to help his family tend to his ailing father. Much to his surprise, the younger Cocchia soon found himself taking over the liquor store and grape business. Winemaking, followed by homebrewing, was a natural for him. In 1993 he opened Homemade Libations next door to his liquor store and around the corner from where his grandfather sold groceries. You could stretch a point and say that homebrewing supplies have been sold in South Norwalk for eighty-two years.

"I'd say that I have about one thousand winemaking customers (he's the largest grape seller in Connecticut) and about five hundred beer making customers," said Cocchia, "and those numbers seem to be growing all the time. The winemakers are about 95 percent Italian and Portuguese, and mostly elderly, but that seems to be changing a bit. Younger people are coming in and wanting to make the wines their grandparents made, and these younger people are also interested in homebrewing. I call it the 'skip generation' factor. The grandparents from the Old Country did these things at home, their children became more Americanized and bought their wines and beers at the store, and now the grandchildren want to get in touch with their roots and do what their grandparents did."

Cocchia's customers are, like most home wine and beer makers, an enthusiastic lot. The shelves in one corner of his store are stacked with samples of wine and beer that his customers have brought in to either share with Cocchia (the proud parent syndrome) or to ask why the wine or beer tastes so strange (the infection syndrome). A visit to Homemade Libations always allows for a tasting of some interesting homemade wine and beer. Downstairs is where Cocchia makes his own wines and beers. He's set up a sink, built a long tabletop as a workspace and installed a high-intensity cooker. The far end of the basement serves as a perfect storage area for dozens of carboys holding wine and beer. Upstairs, the liquor store's cold box is a perfect lagering space. Just what every homebrewer would love to have.

While touring the facilities downstairs, I saw a carboy fitted with an airlock, holding a pale, cloudy liquid. I thought it might be a Belgian Wit beer. Cocchia siphoned a bit into a cup for me to sample. It had a slightly sweet, fruity and floral nose and taste, but was definitely not a beer. At the same time, it didn't taste exactly like a wine. It was dandelion wine, made from last spring's crop of wild dandelions that Cocchia collects from a "secret" field in Norwalk. The wine was young, and Cocchia next gave me a taste of a two-year-old dandelion wine in which he had added raisins. This wine was dark, mildly sweet, floral and quite mellow.

Along with wine and beer, Cocchia also makes malt vinegar, puts up olives and has just made a rather large quantity of an Italian sausage called "soprasatto" (ground pork butts with seasonings) which is curing in the liquor store's cold box. Homemade wine, beer and food -- a great combination.

With a large base of loyal customers, last year Cocchia began holding a series of beer tastings at the Cobbs Mill Inn in nearby Weston, a restaurant he owns with his brothers. He's gathered crowds of as many as 130 people at these events, serving vast quantities of food and educating those present about different beer styles. It's quite a place to hold a beer tasting.

The restaurant, voted "Most Romantic" by Connecticut Magazine's 1994 Reader's Preference Poll, overlooks the pastoral Saugatuck River and a lovely waterfall. Cocchia plans to continue this series of beer tastings in 1995. He's also planning a Fest Day in June where he hopes to get together in one place and at one time his winemaking and homebrewing customers. "I want to have a fun day of wine, beer, food and entertainment. We'll probably have a minor wine and beer competition. I'd like to get a band that can play Oom-Pah music for the beer folks and Italian opera for the Italian winemakers. (And maybe some British and Irish music for the ale makers, I suggested.)

What does the future hold for Cocchia? He didn't want to be too specific about this, but he's quite fond of the German "gasthaus" he came across during his stay in Germany, and he thinks this would be popular here. "In the typical gasthaus, of which you would find many in any given German city or town, you have a wonderful combination of a brewery, restaurant, bakery and sausage making business, all under the same roof," said Cocchia.

"And it doesn't have to be huge," he added. "It can be a small operation. I think that here in America, people wanting good microbrewed beer and people wanting brewpubs is an expression of their desire for quality food items in general. Therefore, I think there is a market also for homemade foods in restaurants more than we have today. I think they all go hand-in-hand. And this goes back to that German gasthaus model that I saw work so beautifully in Germany. I think the start of it is the brewpub, and I think it can be expanded."