Photos by Gallo

Less Is More Gina Gallo, third-generation winemaker, is taking the world's largest winery in a totally new direction: small. By Nancy Ross Ryan For more than half a century, the name Gallo has been linked with the ever-popular and affordable (dare we say cheap?) Hearty Burgundy. That familiar green gallon jug is still popular at picnics and pizza parlors, college sorority houses and fraternity bashes. Not, of course, that any of us have ever tasted it. So let me describe it in great detail: It is red, agreeable, drinkable. It is not the sort of wine one swirls and sniffs. It is not the sort of wine one sips. One simply pours and swallows -- and therein lies the power and the glory of this wine that made Gallo the world's largest winery ever. Now along comes this third-generation who won't leave well enough alone, whose wines are winning international awards and changing the image and reputation of Gallo -- and proving that less is much, much more. A soupçon of history: Julio Gallo (Gina's grandfather) and his brother Ernest started the winery in 1933 in Modesto in California's Central Valley, capitalized with Julio's $900 life savings and a $5,000 loan from Ernest's mother-in-law. Together they built the family business into the world's largest winery. Julio's son Robert ("Grandpa's right-hand man") was the second generation, and his son Matt (now 35 and head of vineyard operations) and daughter Gina (now 32 and winemaker) are the third. But the grapes that Matt is growing and the wines that Gina is making -- with the mentoring of Gallo winemaker and longtime family friend Marcello Monticello -- are varietals, not blends, and handcrafted, not mass produced, in Sonoma, not Modesto. The new label, Gallo of Sonoma County, was officially launched in 1993 with the release of its first wines. But founders Ernest and Julio didn't build the world's biggest winery by being asleep at the till. Just as they were clever enough to recognize that America's wine-drinking palate was in its infancy when they were priming it on Hearty Burgundy, so were they astute enough to forsee that a new and different generation of sophisticated wine-drinkers was just beyond the horizon. And in the 1930s -- when they were churning out jug wines in Modesto -- they recognized that Sonoma County with its varied terrain held the potential for world-class wines. So they began buying grapes in Sonoma in the 1930s and later purchased parcels of land in the four distinct regions of the county: Dry Creek Valley, Russian River, Alexander Valley and the Sonoma Coast. Gina had always worked in the family business. "You don't grow up Gallo and not work," she says. As a kid she pruned -- "It was more like hacking," she says -- the vines with her brother Matt. In her 20s she embarked on the winemaking program at the University of California Davis, a voyage of discovery to her true calling. She then apprenticed to Marcello Monticello and worked closely with her father and, for four years before he passed away, her grandfather Julio. "I inherited my winemaking soul from him, " she says. "I can't imagine doing anything else. I am fortunate to be born into it. I really believe that if you discover what it is you were born to do in life, just do it and forget about how you are going to get paid, then everything else will follow." What has followed are three tiers of wines. At the pinnacle are the Estate Chardonnay and Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, hand-harvested and aged in American and French oak barrels. These wines are produced in very limited quantities, about 2,000 cases, in vintage years only. Retail prices range from $30 to $50 a bottle. The next tier are Gallo of Sonoma Single Vineyard Series wines produced from the same quality grapes. Prices range from $16 to $18 a bottle. The third tier of Gallo of Sonoma County wines are produced in greater quantities for a wider audience and include varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon, Russian River Valley Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot and Pinot Noir. They are retail priced from $10 to $12 a bottle. Awards to the Gallo of Sonoma winery have also followed. In 1998 they include being named Winery of the Year by the San Francisco International Wine Competition, Premio Gran Vinitaly in Verona, Italy; and having Gina Gallo's 1995 Estate Chardonnay judged the Best Chardonnay Worldwide at the London International Wine & Spirit Competition, the world's oldest annual wine and spirit competition and perhaps the most rigorous. In 1999 Gallo of Sonoma was named Bon Appétit Winery of the Year, and Winery of the Century by the Los Angeles County Fair. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Gallo's home winery in Modesto, the familiar jugs of Hearty Burgundy are still being produced. And Gallo produces -- and imports -- wine under many other labels: Gossamer Bay, Turning Leaf, Ecco Domani, to name a few. But the award-winning wines that Gina is making go through a different and exacting process utilizing the latest technology. For example, red and white wines are handled differently. An array of temperature-controlled rotary fermenters gently mix the fruit used in red wines to get the best color, aromas, flavors and body without the bitter tannins. After hand-picking, white wine grapes are neither stripped nor crushed but travel whole onto conveyors to special membrane presses which gently release the juice that is then quickly tapped off without absorbing any bitterness from stems and seeds. And to avoid the slightest shock to the young wines, the juice is moved through pipes with large gentle curves rather than sharp angles. This gentle process allows the wines to sidestep the usual stainless steel tanks and go directly to barrels for fermenting. Despite all the technology, Gina says, "As a winemaker you need to react fast and be flexible, because it's not a formula. Mother nature gives us a different fruit every year." The current Gallo of Sonoma wines are just the beginning. "We have a winemaking style," says Gina,"wines with depth and a little mystery, wines that are not obvious but still can make you say, 'wow!'" And she is now busy applying it to other grapes. Gallo of Sonoma will release a 100% Sangiovese soon and Gina is currently working with Barbera ("a great food wine"), Pinot Grigio and Italian varieties in general. "I'm also interested in Syrah, Cinsaut, and Viognier. And there are so many more interesting grapes," she says warming to her subject. "There is Tempranillo, a Spanish variety -- it's soft and rich with tannins like butter. And Portuguese grapes! There are at least a dozen different varieties that interest me. Maybe, long-range and small-scale Port is in the future." A word of advice: When drinking Gallo of Sonoma wines, swirl, sniff and taste. Then say, "Wow!"

THE BUZZ - October 1999

BACK