In Memoriam: Ernest Gallo. A titan and patriarch of the California wine industry passed away last March. Ernest Gallo was one of the best things that happened to California wines because his vision prompted other wine producers to awaken and to emulate that vision, which insisted that California wines could be marketed and sold to U.S. consumers weaned upon French wines. Ernest and his brother, Julio (who worked as hard as Ernest did), created the modern wine market by memorable media ads – the best of which was a generous two-page spread of mail boxes of the names of major California wine producers at the time. It ran for months in major publications. Gallo spent the millions on media that the rest of California winedom could not afford, and they gladly held on to Gallo’s coattails. The ads made Gallo, Napa and Sonoma nationally noticed. There were also major television and radio ads. Then came a hard-driving, hard-nosed national sales force, with Ernest in the lead. He visited wine retail stores incessantly, making sure his products got the best shelf space, which they did. He created modern merchandising. If you asked Ernest Gallo what he did for a living, he wouldn’t tell you that he was the CEO of the Gallo Corporation; he’d tell you that he visited wine stores across the country – hundreds of them. The titan was too busy marketing his brands to be concerned with titles. In fact, Ernest Gallo’s home phone number was never removed from the Modesto directory, and for decades he answered his own telephone. He had an early 20th century European immigrant’s mentality (even though he was born in California) that spoke for respect for country, for hard work (18-hour days were common to him), for savings, and for education. He was largely self-educated. As a young man, he knew nothing about making wine, so he decided he’d read everything he could at the library until he had the subject sufficiently in hand. He was, for that matter, an inveterate reader in a broad range of subjects. His early life was hard, and his later life successful – of epic proportions, of which even Horatio Alger couldn’t conceive. Not even the Great Depression deterred his visions. Then came his pioneering of the Modesto Grape Research Laboratory at Gallo, from which dozens of major California winemakers – Ed Sbragia of Beringer for example – emerged in the ’70s and ’80s. Ernest Gallo was important to California employment as well. He started with three people and saw that grow to 4,600. He was a man for numbers, for details, and his memory was sharp to the very end. Success brought extraordinary generosity – countless charities, several boards, and endowing the Maynard A. Amerine Chair in Viticulture and Enology at U.C. Davis. Ernest Gallo’s biggest loss was his brother, gentle Julio, who created another family vision at Gallo of Sonoma Winery, which brought Gallo the respect it needed and deserved, and is one of the exquisite sites in the area. In those early days, Ernest Gallo brought to California the vital twigs needed to build what is now a great eagle’s nest called Napa and Sonoma. In the end, much of the fame associated with California vintners today is that they had such a friend. Ernest Gallo (1909—2007) laid the foundation and the heritage for the mighty wineries of northern California, not the least of which was his own.

© 2007 Tasters Guild Orlando