Ernest Gallo, who with his brother Julio created a post-Prohibition wine business that became one of the most dominant in the world and changed the American palate, has died. He was 97.
Gallo died Tuesday at his home in Modesto, E. & J. Gallo Winery announced. A cause of death was not given.
Ernest was the older of the Gallos who, in 1933, launched the low-end winery in Modesto -- far from the state's premier wine-producing areas to the north.
In 2006, E. & J. Gallo shipped an estimated 70 million cases of California wine, and estimates are that Gallo has been producing about a quarter of all wine and wine-related products sold in the United States.
In all, Gallo owns thousands of acres of vineyards from Modesto to Napa and Sonoma counties and a network of wineries, anchored by the world's largest in Livingston, south of Modesto.
"No one worked harder to build the base of American wine drinkers that we have today," Joseph Ciatti, owner of the nation's largest grape and bulk wine broker, said Tuesday. "Ernest made quality wine for the masses at a good price."
Starting with such everyday wines as Hearty Burgundy and Carlo Rossi and specialty and fortified beverages such as Night Train Express, Thunderbird and Ripple, Gallo evolved into a worldwide purveyor of fine wine. Its current brands include Louis M. Martini, Mirassou, Rancho Zabaco, MacMurray Ranch and Gallo Family Vineyards.
In more recent years, the company has expanded its dominance by striking agreements with wine producers in France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.
Gallo "put California on the wine map of the United States and then, through exporting, put California on the wine map of the world," said Nat DiBuduo, president of Fresno-based Allied Grape Growers, the state's largest wine-grape-growing cooperative.
Ernest, who was the power behind the company, handled the marketing and business end, while Julio, who was sometimes called the farmer at Gallo, oversaw winemaking.
When the Gallo brothers started the business, the joke was that Ernest's goal was to sell more wine than Julio could make, and Julio's was to make more wine than Ernest could sell.
With that philosophy and hard-nosed business practices, the Gallo brothers over the years created a company -- now one of the largest privately owned businesses in the country -- that made them and their progeny immensely wealthy. In September, Ernest Gallo and family ranked No. 297 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, worth $1.3 billion.
