He was born on September 5, 1883 in Marseilles, France, the son of Raffaello Petri and Rosina Bertolucci, natives of Lucca, Italy. Although he did not arrive in the United States until 1895, his father had established the first Petri Wine Company in the San Joaquin Valley of California as early as 1886 and was the proprietor of the Toscano, a small residential hotel in the North Beach section of San Francisco.
He completed his elementary education in the late 1890's.
After studies Petri went to work in his uncle Amadeo's cigar business. He recognized it as a business with a guaranteed future, because he experienced the response from the community firsthand in his door-to-door sales to local shops.
Petri became president of the Petri Cigar Company in 1912. By the mid-1920's the company was the largest cigar manufacturing company west of Chicago. During these peak years, when some 50 million cigars were produced and the business grossed as much as $300, 000 annually, Petri expanded to produce American-type, machine-made cigars. Petri's father's wine company had begun as a purely local business. But, just as Marca Petri cigars gained popularity in Italian communities elsewhere, so Marca Petri wine was sold in bulk as far away as New York City and Detroit.
In 1916 Petri's father and his partners purchased a vineyard in the San Joaquin Valley, at Alba Station, Escalon. But the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale of wine or liquor, went into effect in January 1920 - apparently sealing the fate of Petri Wine. During Prohibition, Petri concentrated on his growing cigar business, but retained his part ownership of the Alba Grape and Fruit Company, which sold grapes to eastern markets for home winemaking. The grapes were varieties that could travel cross-country with the least spoilage. In 1933 the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed, and Petri saw the golden opportunity in the wine business.
He abandoned the manufacture of American-type cigars and sold twenty-two cigar-making machines to raise capital that he used to revive the family wine business. With those funds he acquired wineries all over Napa County. He sold his wine in bulk to bottlers, who resold it under their own names.
Petri's younger son, Louis, was in medical school when he fell in love with Flori Cella, the daughter of the head of the Roma Wine Company, a competitor of Petri Wine. Although Petri wanted Louis to become a doctor, he knew his son would work for Roma if Petri refused to employ him. After the wedding on July 21, 1935, Petri hired Louis as a wine-barrel washer at $75 a month, thus displaying his disappointment while accepting the inevitable. To his credit, he soon recognized Louis' flair for marketing. He named him general manager in 1937, vice-president in 1940, and president in 1944.
In 1944 Petri's elder son, Albert, became president of Petri Cigars, a subsidiary of Petri Wine. After 1944, Angelo Petri acted mainly in an advisory capacity as chairman of the board. In 1949, Petri Wine acquired K. Arakelian, at Madera, California, the second largest winery in the nation, for $3. 25 million. At this time the firm was renamed United Vintners.
With Petri's blessing, Louis took the revolutionary step of organizing about 300 San Joaquin Valley farmers into the Allied Grape Growers Cooperative. He sold the Petri Vineyards to the growers in exchange for the guarantee of the exclusive right to buy their crops. The Italian Swiss Colony label was acquired in 1953, and by 1954, United Vintners was the largest wine-marketing organization in the world. With sales of $41. 5 million, the firm produced approximately 22 percent of all domestic wines consumed in the United States.
He retired in 1956 because of ill health and died in San Francisco.
Angelo Petri was the president of the Petri Cigar Company, under his leadership and with the use of advertising, the Petri cigars became known nationally, especially in the Italian areas of the larger cities. Besides, using modern merchandising methods, Angelo Petri created a viable wine business in the post-Prohibition era. Because of the strong foundation laid by him, his son was able to build the wine empire that made the Petri name famous. Angelo Petri was also a director of the Bank of America (1932 - 1956), was decorated by the Italian government in 1954 for his aid to needy children during World War II.
On April 28, 1907, he married Amelia Guidi; they had two sons.
