E & J Gallo Winery is a winery and distributor headquartered in
Modesto, California. It was
founded in 1933 by
Ernest Gallo
Ernest J. Gallo (March 18, 1909March 6, 2007) was an American businessman and philanthropist. Gallo co-founded the E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto, California.
Early life
Gallo was born on March 18, 1909, in Jackson, California.[Julio Gallo
Julio Gallo (March 21, 1910 – May 2, 1993) was one of two of the founders of the E & J Gallo Winery.
Biography
He was born on March 21, 1910, in Oakland, California to Joseph Gallo, Sr. He had two brothers: his partner in the wine business, E ...]
, and is the largest exporter of
California wines.
E & J Gallo Winery is the largest
family-owned winery in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
History
During
Prohibition in the United States, Ernest and Julio Gallo grew grapes and sold them to eastern states where home winemaking was allowed.
[Bob Jamieson]
"Ernest Gallo, the Truth Behind the Myth"
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, 8 March 2007
On June 14, 1933, Ernest Gallo filed an application with the Prohibition administration to open a bonded wine storeroom in San Francisco. On June 20, his application was rejected. He was advised that in order to open a storeroom, he had to own a bonded winery. And in order to be bonded as a winery, he had to own vineyards. Ernest and Julio then took steps to bond a winery in the name of their newly formed partnership, E & J Gallo. They had stationery printed that included two designations next to their name: “winery” and “grape growers and shippers.” Their father's estate owned both the grape growing and shipping businesses as well as the vineyards required to establish a winery, at that juncture. Ernest applied on this letterhead to the Board of Alcohol for approval. He wrote that he and Julio were “grape growers with over 400 acres of grapes.”
The two brothers started the winery in the fall of 1933,
following the repeal of Prohibition.
Ernest and Julio were competing against larger, more established, and better financed companies, including more than 800 wine companies established in California in the first few years after the repeal of Prohibition. Their
starting capital was less than $6,000 (~$110,000 inflation-adjusted to 2017), with $5,000 of that borrowed by Ernest from his mother-in-law, Teresa Franzia. The brothers learned the craft of commercial
winemaking
Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...
by reading old, pre-Prohibition pamphlets published by the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
which they retrieved from the basement of the Modesto Public Library.
Julio was focused on the production of wine, and Ernest on its sale.
[Kim Kowsky]
"Winemaker Julio Gallo Dies in Car Crash"
''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', 3 May 1993 They had just one tractor, and would run it permanently on 12/12 hour shifts. On the first year of activity, the brothers had produced 177,000 gallons of wine.
In 1957, E & J Gallo launched the fortified cheap white wine
Thunderbird
Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to:
* Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture
* Ford Thunderbird, a car
Birds
* Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...
. In 1962, E & J Gallo launched the one gallon finger-ringed jug of cheap wine, ''Red Mountain'', later ''Carlo Rossi Red Mountain'', named after a winery above Oakdale that closed during Prohibition.
Later, the US market began to move away from cheap wines.
Ernest and Julio were the first to introduce
brand management
In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is pe ...
and modern merchandising to the wine industry, and led the way in bringing new products to store shelves. They were first in breakthrough quality initiatives such as long-term grower contracts for varietal grapes and grape research programs.
They were also first to establish a truly significant foreign sales and marketing force to export California wines overseas.
They pioneered wine advertising on television and launched many wine advertising campaigns. (One of these helped to popularize "Hymne", composed and performed by
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...
, by featuring it as background music in some of its television commercials.)
The company's 1960s ads were focused on associating their US-made wines with Europe's fine wine regions. In 1983, for the first time, the company put a vintage date on one of its wines, the 1978 Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon.
["The Gallo Family"](_blank)
''Wine Spectator
''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...
''
During the 1980s and 1990s, E & J Gallo bought wine labels from Europe and Australia.
By 1993, E & J Gallo was the country's largest winery, with a 25% share of the American wine market.
Julio Gallo died in a car accident on 2 May 1993.
Ernest died in 2007, and his son Joe Gallo took over the company as CEO.
In 2002 E & J Gallo purchased the
Louis M. Martini Winery, giving the company its first
Napa Valley
Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...
location. On September 14, 2007,
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a
partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...
with E & J Gallo Winery to produce a brand of wine labelled "Martha Stewart Vintage". In 2011, E & J Gallo sold Hornsby's hard cider to the
C&C Group
C&C Group plc (known prior to its flotation as Cantrell & Cochrane Limited) is an Irish manufacturer, marketer and distributor of alcoholic drinks, particularly cider, and soft drinks. It has production facilities across Ireland, Great Britain ...
for an undisclosed amount and partnered with
Boisset Collection to purchase the
Mondavi estate. In 2017, E & J Gallo Winery bought the Napa Valley Stagecoach vineyard.
In April 2019,
Constellation Brands Inc. announced a deal to sell wine brands, including Clos du Bois and Mark West, to E & J Gallo Winery for $1.7 billion.
The deal was later amended, twice, to exclude sparkling wine brands Cook's California 'Champagne' and J. Roget American 'Champagne' (both retained by Constellation for four years post final agreement), Paul Masson Brandy which was divested to Sazerac Company Inc., Sheffield Cellars and Fairbanks divested to Precept Brands LLC, and its High Color Concentrates division was divested to Vie-Del Company. for an adjusted price agreement of $1.1B, of which $250 million is an earnout if brand performance provisions are met over a two-year period after closing. Agreement was finalized on January 6, 2021 for $810 million.
In 2020, the
University of California, Merced
The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) is a public land-grant research university and Hispanic-serving institution located in Merced, California, and is the tenth and newest of the University of California (UC) campuses. Establish ...
was planning on opening its first new school since it launched, the Ernest & Julio Gallo School of Management, a multi-disciplinary school encompassing many different disciplines.
Legal disputes
In 1970, David Gallo was considering suing country rock group
Boones Farm over the use of the name, Boones Farm.
In 1986, the Gallo brothers sued their younger brother
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
for selling cheese branded with the Joseph Gallo Farms name. Joseph then counterclaimed, alleging that Ernest and Julio conspired to steal his share of the inheritance from their father. This claim included the winery, where the evidence submitted by Joseph's attorney suggested that it was actually started by their father. Joseph Gallo lost both suits and was forced to change the name of his business to Joseph Farms.
In the 1990s, Gallo Winery made an agreement with Gallo Pasta (a Spanish company) that the latter would not sell their pasta in the United States.
[
]
Gallo filed a
cease-and-desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not disc ...
order
in April 2009 against "The Spanish Table", a Seattle-based specialty food retailer, for carrying the pasta despite the previous agreement with the maker.
[
In February 2010, twelve French winemakers and traders who had supplied wine to Gallo for its ''Red Bicyclette'' brand were found guilty in a French court of fraud, as they had claimed an inferior wine sold to Gallo was Pinot noir.
In October 2019, a lawsuit filed in the ]Eastern District of California
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California (in case citations, E.D. Cal.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the ...
claimed Gallo used patented technology without a license to develop their irrigation system.
Labor relations
The United Farm Workers
The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...
(UFW) began boycotting Gallo in the summer of 1973 after Gallo did not renew their contract and signed with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Lead by Cesar Chavez, the UFW alleged that Gallo had worked out a "sweetheart deal" with the teamsters that offered fewer protections and that workers did not agree to teamster representation. An estimated 10,000 workers and supporters of the UFW marched 100 miles over the course of a week to the Gallo winery in Modesto
Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton ...
.
Supporters of the boycott nationwide protested the buying and selling of Gallo wines, including student groups at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in Cambridge, MA
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
who demanded a boycott of Gallo by the university and picketed local stores. The boycott against Gallo was called off by the UFW in 1978 after the union felt it had improved workers' rights of representation in labor disputes.
In October 2009, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board
The Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) is an agency of the California state government that administers the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which establishes collective bargaining for farmworkers in the state.Hurt, R. Douglas ...
(CALRB) revoked a 2007 election to eject the United Farm Workers
The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...
from Gallo Winery, citing interference from Gallo. This was the second time in a decade a vote to remove the union was overturned due to allegations of Gallo illegally trying to influence proceedings; the other was a 2003 ruling in which the CALRB threw out an election citing a foreman improperly requesting signatures for the petition for the vote. Gallo appealed that decision.
Ecological impact
Gallo helped develop and implement the Code of Sustainable Wine Growing Practices, in collaboration with the Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.
The Code promotes sustainable practices which are environmentally sound, economically feasible and socially equitable. It covers virtually every aspect of the wine business including viticulture
Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...
and grape growing, wine making, purchasing and building and maintaining productive relationships with neighbors and the local communities.
Gallo received ISO 14001 certification from the International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
. The certification was created to globally assist and guide companies to reduce their environmental impact
Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...
.
In April 2009, the California State Water Resources Control Board
The California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is one of six branches of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
History
This regulatory program has had the status of an official government department since the 1950s. The Sta ...
served Gallo Glass Co. (a Gallo Winery subsidiary) with a cease and desist order and $73,000 fine for allegedly channeling water from the Russian River into an unlicensed reservoir; however, there are provisions for licensing the reservoir under proper monitoring of flow and capacity.
In March 2015, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control sued the E & J Gallo glass production plant in Modesto for improper storage and treatment of the glass bottles. E & J Gallo would use the dust collected by its air pollution control devices, and introduce it in the components of their glass bottles during production. E & J Gallo argued that this process was standard in the wine industry.
Wine brands
In addition to the Gallo Family Vineyards brand, the company makes, markets, and distributes wine under more than 100 other labels. The company also makes the low-end fortified wines Thunderbird and Night Train Express.
* André is one of the best-selling brands of sparkling wine
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...
in the United States. It is available in varietals including Brut, Extra Dry, Cold Duck
Cold Duck is the name of a sparkling wine made in the United States.
Origin
The recipe was based on a German legend involving Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony ordering the mixing of champagne with unfinished bottles of wine. The drink, as it ev ...
, Blush, Spumante, strawberry, and peach-flavored California Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...
, among others. André's California Champagne is bulk-fermented.
: While the United States agreed in 2006 to not approve any new wine labels for US-produced products that include the term "Champagne," André is legally allowed to use the term as a grandfathered label. André's Brut California Champagne has been described as the sparkling wine that many people have noted was their first experience with this variety of wine. One champagne expert said it is "like ginger ale
Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph ...
– pale yellow in color, lemony and on the sweet side, with maybe an apple flavor as well and low bubbles".
* Carlo Rossi is a brand of wine produced by the E & J Gallo Winery. The brand was named after Charles Rossi, at the time a salesman for Gallo and a relation of the Gallo family by marriage. Charlie Rossi starred in TV ads for the brand in the 1970s. Carlo Rossi wines were at one point the second best selling brand in the United States. Carlo Rossi is reflected in popular culture in E-40
Earl Tywone Stevens Sr. (born November 15, 1967), better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the rap group The Click, and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 26 studio albums to date, ...
's single, "Carlos Rossi."
* Boone's Farm was formerly a brand of apple wine produced by the E & J Gallo Winery. Now, flavors are malt-based instead of wine-based due to changes in tax laws. The brand is popular on college campuses due to its low price. Boone's Farm Beverages, served in 750 ml bottles, are often located in the cold box area of convenience stores across the United States. In some U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
s, such as Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, some Boone's Farm products are labeled as malt beverages and not as flavored apple/citrus wine products, as state liquor laws prohibit the sale of wine in grocery and convenience stores.
* Barefoot Wine, produced by Modesto
Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton ...
-based Barefoot Cellars, was purchased by E & J Gallo Winery in 2005. The line offers 17 varietals and blends: Zinfandel, Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
, Merlot, Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, White Zinfandel
White Zinfandel is an off-dry to sweet rosé wine. Originally the result of a stuck fermentation and fortuitous accident, White Zinfandel is made from the Zinfandel wine grape that would otherwise produce a bold and spicy red wine.
White Zinfa ...
, Moscato, Pinot grigio
Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...
, Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling
Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...
, Sweet Red, Brut Cuvee Chardonnay sparkling wine
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...
, Extra Dry sparkling wine, Pinot Grigio sparkling wine, Moscato Spumante, and Pink Cuvee sparkling wine. In January 2020, Barefoot Wine announced its launch of a line of wine-infused hard seltzer
Hard seltzer, adult seltzer, mature seltzer, spiked seltzer and hard sparkling alcohol water is a type of highball drink containing seltzer (carbonated water), alcohol, and often fruit flavorings. In the US the alcohol is usually made by fermen ...
.
Additional brands
A–B
C–E
F–I
J–L
M
N–R
S–T
U–Z
Vineyard trials
Viticulturists at Gallo use their vineyard resources to trial new grape variety
This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...
plantings in California wine regions in an effort to see which varieties grow best in various climates and soil types
A soil type is a taxonomic unit in soil science. All soils that share a certain set of well-defined properties form a distinctive soil type. Soil type is a technical term of soil classification, the science that deals with the systematic categoriz ...
. One of the varieties that Gallo has been trialling in the San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...
is the French wine
French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and Amer ...
grape Ederena
Ederena is a red French wine grape variety that is a crossing of the Bordeaux wine grape Merlot and the Southwest France variety Abouriou. The grape was created in 1952 at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) center in Bordea ...
.[J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes – A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' p. 322, Allen Lane 2012 ]
Advertising
''Advertising Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in m ...
'' noted that "the Gallo experience," during the 1950s, '60s, '70s and 1980s, wore down many an ad agency. Ernest Gallo was listed in the periodical's "The TOUGHEST Clients" series.
Awards
E & J Gallo Winery was named the "Bon Appetit Winery of the Year" in the 1996, 1998, and 2001 San Francisco International Wine Competitions.
Intangible Business, a brand valuation firm, rated Gallo as the world's "Most Powerful Wine Brand" in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.
See also
* Gallo family
The Gallo family is an American wine family. The father, Giuseppe "Joseph" Gallo, Sr., immigrant from Fossano, Italy, after a period of menial labor started farming grapes, founded a winery, and died in a murder suicide when he shot his wife and th ...
* Napa County wine
Napa County wine refers to the viticulture and winemaking in Napa County, California, United States. County names in the United States automatically qualify as legal appellations of origin for wine produced from grapes grown in that county and ...
Further reading
*
*
Ernest_Gallo
''California Wine Industry Oral History Series'', University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallo, E and J Winery
Wineries in California
Companies based in Stanislaus County, California
1933 establishments in California
American companies established in 1933
Food and drink companies established in 1933
American brands
Wine brands
Gallo family
Family-owned companies of the United States