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8. Ernest and Julio Gallo: Creating New Markets

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The Makers of American Wine
This chapter is in the book The Makers of American Wine
127RetrospectIf, at the end of his long life, Ernest Gallo (1909–2007) troubled to look back over his career, what he saw was the whole extent of American wine history since its rebirth after the repeal of Prohibition at the end of 1933, the year that he went to work as a winemaker. He could take great satisfac-tion from the view, for what it showed was that, of all the many wine-mak-ing enterprises that had appeared in that dawn, his alone had survived and prospered: Roma, Petri, Italian Swiss Colony, Fruit Industries, Inglenook, Beaulieu, Larkmead, Christian Brothers, Paul Masson—all were gone or had been swallowed up and transformed by big conglomerates. Gallo him-self now owned Louis Martini and Mirassou and Frei Brothers, though they were mere appendages to the huge body of his enterprise. The names of the big competitors that he had had to face at the beginning—mostly Italian Americans who, unlike Gallo, had enjoyed the backing of A.P. Gianinni at the Bank of America—no longer figured in the trade talk: Cella, Martini, Rossi, Petri, Lanza, Baccigaluppi, Cribari. All, without exception, had disap-peared. The Gallo winery alone still flourished. And how it flourished!Ernest Gallo, with his younger brother Julio,1 had taken out a license to make wine in the last months of the Prohibition era, when the authorities, knowing that repeal was certain, handed out permits with a free hand. The repeal amendment, the Twenty-first Amendment, would not actually be ratified until December 5, 1933, and until then the manufacture and sell-ing of wine “for beverage purposes” would continue to be illegal under the laws of Prohibition. But there was no law against making and storing wine against the day when it would again be legal to sell it for the purpose for eightErnest and Julio GalloCreating New Markets
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

127RetrospectIf, at the end of his long life, Ernest Gallo (1909–2007) troubled to look back over his career, what he saw was the whole extent of American wine history since its rebirth after the repeal of Prohibition at the end of 1933, the year that he went to work as a winemaker. He could take great satisfac-tion from the view, for what it showed was that, of all the many wine-mak-ing enterprises that had appeared in that dawn, his alone had survived and prospered: Roma, Petri, Italian Swiss Colony, Fruit Industries, Inglenook, Beaulieu, Larkmead, Christian Brothers, Paul Masson—all were gone or had been swallowed up and transformed by big conglomerates. Gallo him-self now owned Louis Martini and Mirassou and Frei Brothers, though they were mere appendages to the huge body of his enterprise. The names of the big competitors that he had had to face at the beginning—mostly Italian Americans who, unlike Gallo, had enjoyed the backing of A.P. Gianinni at the Bank of America—no longer figured in the trade talk: Cella, Martini, Rossi, Petri, Lanza, Baccigaluppi, Cribari. All, without exception, had disap-peared. The Gallo winery alone still flourished. And how it flourished!Ernest Gallo, with his younger brother Julio,1 had taken out a license to make wine in the last months of the Prohibition era, when the authorities, knowing that repeal was certain, handed out permits with a free hand. The repeal amendment, the Twenty-first Amendment, would not actually be ratified until December 5, 1933, and until then the manufacture and sell-ing of wine “for beverage purposes” would continue to be illegal under the laws of Prohibition. But there was no law against making and storing wine against the day when it would again be legal to sell it for the purpose for eightErnest and Julio GalloCreating New Markets
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. List of Illustrations ix
  4. Acknowledgments xi
  5. Introduction xiii
  6. 1. John James Dufour, or the Uses of Failure: A Man with a Mission 1
  7. 2. Nicholas Longworth: The Necessary Entrepreneur 22
  8. 3. George Husmann: A Pure and Lofty Faith 39
  9. 4. Charles Kohler: Putting California Wines on the Map 57
  10. 5. Andrea Sbarboro: The Italians Are Coming 75
  11. 6. Percy T. Morgan and the CWA: Wine as Big Business 90
  12. 7. Paul Garrett: American Wine for Americans 107
  13. 8. Ernest and Julio Gallo: Creating New Markets 127
  14. 9. Frank Schoonmaker: A Master Teacher 149
  15. 10. Maynard Amerine: Applied Science 171
  16. 11. Konstantin Frank: Zealot at Work 195
  17. 12. Robert Mondavi: Aiming for the Top 215
  18. 13. Cathy Corison: Women Become Winemakers 236
  19. Notes 255
  20. Sources and Works Cited 289
  21. Index 301
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https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520952225-011

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. List of Illustrations ix
  4. Acknowledgments xi
  5. Introduction xiii
  6. 1. John James Dufour, or the Uses of Failure: A Man with a Mission 1
  7. 2. Nicholas Longworth: The Necessary Entrepreneur 22
  8. 3. George Husmann: A Pure and Lofty Faith 39
  9. 4. Charles Kohler: Putting California Wines on the Map 57
  10. 5. Andrea Sbarboro: The Italians Are Coming 75
  11. 6. Percy T. Morgan and the CWA: Wine as Big Business 90
  12. 7. Paul Garrett: American Wine for Americans 107
  13. 8. Ernest and Julio Gallo: Creating New Markets 127
  14. 9. Frank Schoonmaker: A Master Teacher 149
  15. 10. Maynard Amerine: Applied Science 171
  16. 11. Konstantin Frank: Zealot at Work 195
  17. 12. Robert Mondavi: Aiming for the Top 215
  18. 13. Cathy Corison: Women Become Winemakers 236
  19. Notes 255
  20. Sources and Works Cited 289
  21. Index 301
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