MODESTO, Calif. -- Ernest Gallo, who with his brother Julio, helped build the American wine industry and, in turn, achieved one of the greatest American business successes of the 20th century, died Tuesday at his home in Modesto, Calif. He was 97. Julio passed away in 1993. A younger brother, Joseph, who had his own business interests and passed away earlier this year.
Ernest and Julio were instrumental in introducing U.S. consumers to wine and creating the modern American wine market. Ernest was among the pioneers of wine advertising on TV, and he launched [image-nocss] many memorable wine advertising campaigns.
They were first in the U.S. wine industry to establish their own national sales force; first to introduce brand management and modern merchandising to the wine industry; first in breakthrough quality initiatives such as long-term grower contracts for varietal grapes and major grape research programs; first to establish a significant foreign sales and marketing force to export California wines overseas; and pioneers in bringing new products to store shelves, according to E.&J. Gallo Winery.
Also, they were pivotal in establishing Sonoma County as one of the premier wine growing regions in the world.
E. & J. Gallo Winery, which started with three employees, Ernest, Julio, and Ernest's wife Amelia, today has more than 4,600 employees with products sold throughout the United States and in more than 90 foreign countries. A number of years ago, Ernest turned over day-to-day operations and his son, Joseph, now serves as the company's CEO.
The son of Italian immigrants, Ernest was born March 18, 1909, in Jackson, Calif., about 90 miles east of San Francisco in the Sierra Nevada foothills. His parents, Giuseppe (Joe) and Assunta (Susie), ran a boardinghouse for immigrant miners. After moving several times, in the early 1920s Joe bought a small farm in Modesto, about 70 miles east of San Francisco. In the late 1920s and the early 1930s, the family's grapes were harvested and loaded on rail cars for shipment to Chicago for sale to home winemakers, a small market dominated by immigrant communities in the big cities of the East and Midwest.
In 1933, both parents died deeply in debt. Determined to pay off his father's debts and seeing an opportunity with the impending end of Prohibition, Ernest decided to start the Gallo winery. He asked his brother Julio to join him. Their starting capital was limited to less than $6,000, with $5,000 of that borrowed from Ernest's mother-in-law.
The brothers began without knowing how to make wine commercially. Ernest and Julio learned by reading old, pre-Prohibition pamphlets put out by the University of California and retrieved from the basement of the Modesto Public Library.
Over the 1940s and 1950s, Ernest introduced modern techniques of merchandising and brand management to the wine industry, including such techniques as a dedicated sales force, point-of-sale displays, outdoor billboards and later TV advertising. Between 1948 and 1955 alone, the winery's sales nearly quadrupled, from four million gallons a year to 14 million.
The company also grew through vertical integration. E. & J. Gallo Winery continued to acquire vineyards, expanded its wineries, storage and distribution facilities, and built its own glass plant. It also established the Gallo Research Laboratory, which became a distinguished center of research on all facets of wine production.
Over the course of his lifetime, Ernest was recognized with many awards and honors. Among them were the James Beard Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Wine Spectator's Distinguished Service Award, and the American Society of Enologists' Merit Award.
Ernest worked hard on behalf of his industry, and he served on many industry marketing boards and trade organizations, including the board of the Wine Institute. He was chairman of the Wine Institute from 1957 to 1959. He also founded the Maynard A. Amerine Endowed Chair in Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis, which was the first endowed chair in the University's Department of Viticulture & Enology.
Surviving Ernest are his son, Joseph, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. His wife, Amelia, died in 1993. His first son, David, died in 1997. Funeral services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the Gallo family has requested that contributions be made to the Ernest and Julio Gallo Scholarship Fund at Modesto Junior College.
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