|  Ernest Gallo, whose name was always linked with promoting the low end Californian wines in a big way, died unexpectedly on Tuesday at his home in Modesto California, leaving his billion-dollar empire to his son and grand-children. He would have been 98 on March 18.
Ernest learnt his winemaking in a public library in the Central Valley city of Modesto by reading old, pre-Prohibition pamphlets found in the basement. He made modest beginnings in the wine business in 1933 when the prohibition was about to get over, with his brother Julio (and hence the name E & J Gallo) by taking a loan of $5000 from his mother in law and using up the entire $900 savings of brother Julio.
Hundreds of Italian immigrants had also started making wines in this post-Prohibition, post Depression era. While most did not even survive, he went on to make it a billion- dollar wine empire in partnership with Julio who died in an accident in 1993.
Forbes magazine reported that Gallo sold 75 million cases with sales revenue of $980 m in 2005 with a $44m net profit. In 2006, he was 283 on its list of 400 richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2b. His collection of wineries and labels, all privately owned, employs 4,600 workers and sells wine in 90 countries. It still remains a family owned winery.
For decades, the name Gallo was synonymous with inexpensive California wine. Gallo strived to change that image with advertising, humour, lawsuits and by buying up wineries with more exclusive labels than his own. An aggressive, workaholic businessman, he lived and breathed wine. He aired wine commercials on TV, sat on wine promotion boards, chaired the Wine Institute, mentored generations of winemakers, erected wine hoardings, traveled the country checking on wine displays in supermarkets and enjoying drinking his own stuff.
The iconic vintner Ernest, with brother and Julio brought the first modern marketing and sales techniques to the wine industry: They understood the importance of shelf positioning and floor location, and organized and trained a sophisticated sales force. After Prohibition, their company also helped teach Americans about wine culture. This was the period when most Americans drank whisky like in India and the shops were known as liquor stores. For three generations, Ernest and Julio Gallo have been conducting a national educational course in wine appreciation. They introduced millions of Americans to the pleasures of wine. And as Americans' tastes changed, so did the Gallo's range of wines. Throughout its 70-year history, Gallo has shown an uncanny ability to reinvent itself, and the place of American wine on the world market, consistently strengthening its market position.
Until 2003, when Constellation Brands expanded through a merger, Gallo was the largest wine producer in the world. According to the Wine Business Monthly magazine Gallo has snatched this position back once again in 2006.
Ernest Gallo , the eldest of three boys, was born in Jackson ( Amador County ) in 1909. His family moved from place to place as his father's various farming ventures failed. His life story is fit for the script of a Hollywood movie-his father killed his mother and then killed himself in 1933, leaving the young Gallos in debt.
"My first-grade teacher told me I was the dumbest student she ever had," he told Wine Spectator magazine once. "She did me a favour. If she told me I was very smart, I wouldn't have tried to improve."
When he turned 90, he relinquished his post of CEO and chairman. He still worked until 6:30 p.m. every day , went home and worked three hours more.
He had an uncanny talent for tapping into consumer tastes with sweet products such as Boone's Farm (Made from apple concentrate-that was consumed with such fervour that the prices of apples shot up due to shortage created), Ripple and Thunderbird.
Gallo tried to introduce high quality, cork-finished varietal wines in 1974 , but the venture failed. Later, he developed its Gallo of Sonoma line and began buying upscale competitors like Mirassou and Louis Martini. He also introduced foreign brands Ecco Domani from Italy and Red Bicyclette from France and made them very popular. He is credited with bringing out quality wines in 1993-94 with the advent of Gallo of Sonoma which has been winning several international awards. His wines were widely seen as a low-cost alternative to other California producers who were by then making some of the world's top wines.
The Californian icon, Robert Mondavi might have put California on the world map in the 70s, but Ernest had started making Californian wines popular with the Americans much earlier.
 Ernest was often not very popular person. Robert Mondavi was inducted into the Culinary Institute of America Vintners Hall of Fame this week while he was not even nominated speaks of the ill feelings some people in the industry had for him.
His contribution to Californian wine industry is summed up by Jess Jackson, Founder Chairman of Kendall-Jackson. Jess had sued Ernie for copying his logo on the Turning Leaf label but lost the case like many others including Ernie's youngest brother Joseph who had been making Gallo Cheese but had to change the name to Joseph Cheese when Ernie sued him for making a cheap quality of cheese bringing bad name to his Gallo wines.
"Ernest Gallo was a substantial part of the recovery of the wine industry after Prohibition, and one of the titans of the industry, who helped position California as a wine producer of the highest international respect. He concentrated in the early years more on volume, and was equaled by Louis Martini and of course, Robert Mondavi and others, who elevated the perception, consistency and quality of the industry and helped lay the foundation for what the industry is today. And Ernest was in the early lead on that. We admired him as a titan of the industry and his death closes a chapter that although it started long ago, was critical as a component of our evolution" eulogizes Jackson .
In India , Gallo wines are being imported by Radico Khaitan who have popularized labels like Carlo Rossi, Turning Leaf and Ecco Domani. |
