Real Women Drink Wine: Gallo Expands into Tequilla

This story sort of disturbed me a little. Obviously there is a market for mass produced jug wine, Gallo sold 70 million cases of it last year. They have a large business with a lot of family involvement which is admirable. But to add hard alcohol into the mix, well isn't that a little like Foster's making wine? It doesn't make sense business-wise to me, but hey, I'm also not worth a fraction of the Gallo family so who am I to say anything?

It started in red jug wine; now Gallo sees a future in China and tequilla

The story of how Ernest and Julio Gallo founded their winery has been told often. But the inside story rarely revealed is how the brothers - and subsequently their children and grandchildren - expanded the family business to more than $2 billion in annual sales.

"You have to remain relevant," stressed Joe Gallo, 65. A company must "have an ability to spot opportunities. It's almost like an art form. They come along every day, and it's amazing how the best of people don't see it. But they're there every day."

For 75 years, the winery has capitalized on opportunities and repeatedly reinvented itself - and the wines it produces.

That will continue, Gallo assured. He revealed company plans to expand into hard liquor like tequila, push wine sales into China and Russia, reintroduce an old favorite (sangria) and prepare for the next hot-selling varietal (perhaps malbec).

..."In Modesto, we don't make wine now. It's all for bottling and shipping," Gallo said of his company's headquarters, which employs more than 3,000 people. "A massive amount of our wines are made in Fresno and Livingston, then shipped up here and bottled. We have seven wineries in the state."

It also imports wines from 14 wineries abroad and employs 2,000 more people worldwide. Gallo has wineries in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina.

Last year, Gallo exported more than 14.7 million cases of California wine to 90 countries around the world, and it plans to expand to Russia.

"We're starting to make an effort into China. We think there's terrific potential over there," said Gallo, who recently returned from China. "We would ship our cases over there and have people distribute it. That's our current plan."

Read the full story from the San Louis Obisbo Tribune here: article