Jerome Tuccille. Gallo Be Thy Name: The Inside Story of How One Family Rose to Dominate the U.S. Wine Market. Beverly Hills: Phoenix Books, 2009. 288 pages.
The American wine industry has seen tremendous change over the past eighty years. Driven (mostly) underground by Prohibition, winemakers faced several obstacles after repeal in 1933, chiefly American consumers’ failure to appreciate table wines. Beer and liquor reigned supreme in the tavern, and most Americans who drank wine preferred sweet desert wines. For the next several decades, sweetened, fortified “pop” wines continued to dominate. Since the 1970s, though, a number of California-produced varietals have become staples on American tables and winners of international wine-tasting contests, bringing the industry into the same league as its European forbears.
Along the way, the Gallo family was one of the industry’s most influential. Joseph Gallo, a Piedmontese immigrant, grew grapes in northern California before and during Prohibition. His brother Mike facilitated their transfer to the hoodlums who eagerly stepped in to supply alcohol to thirsty Americans once selling alcohol was criminalized. On the eve of repeal, Joseph and his wife were found dead on their Fresno ranch—either a result of a murder/suicide or something even more sinister.
The author speculates that this could have been a mob hit, possibly one that Ernest and/or Julio were aware of. But he provides no new evidence about the crime, and offers no theory that makes better sense than what we already know.
This technique crops up again and again in the book—there’s a great deal insinuated, but little demonstrated. There’s also some not-so-subtle word choice that portrays the family and the company in an unflattering light—several times, for example, the author references Gallo “invading” Sonoma wine country, rather than “expanding” there, as a more objective biographer might have put it. Throughout, there’s the implication that because Ernest and Julio became wealthy and powerful selling wine, they were somehow less morally conscious than less successful winemakers.
This is a passable introduction to the Gallo winery’s history, but it seems to be playing to the masses—much like the Gallo brothers’ pop wines.
