Wednesday, March 07, 2007

ERNEST GALLO, 97

Other Brother Robert gets the point and a bottle of Thunderbird for alerting us to the death of this icon. From The New York Times:
Somber, secretive and seemingly humorless, with little more than a high school education, Mr. Gallo — working closely with his brother, Julio — created a wine empire that became one of the world’s largest.

While Julio, who died in an auto accident in 1993, preferred the winemaking, Ernest had a head for business. His entrepreneurial skills, instinctive command of marketing and distribution, and his compulsive need to be the best at what he did, created the large company that he controlled at the time of his death.

And the company, entirely family controlled, was indeed large. Industry analysts estimate that Gallo produces some 80 million cases of wine a year, which is about 220,000 cases or 2.64 million bottles every day. The company reportedly owns 10,000 acres of vineyards in California and buys grapes from hundreds of independent growers.
At his death, Gallo was worth an estimated $1.2 billion.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

what an asshole you are dr. fill

Anonymous said...

dr. filbert, your hate for Mr. Gallo must stem from him being a Republican or you don't like cheap wine.

He may be what you call him, but he died far richer than you'll ever be; I don't care what kind of doctor you are.

Quack. Quack.

John Stone said...

In spite of the many fine taste talents of the Gallo Bros ... I still prefer my MD 20/20....

Anonymous said...

That Ernest was quite a corker. You have to respect a guy who sells wine until it's time...to die.

Dick Cheney, meanwhile, rode away on the back of a Scooter...

Anonymous said...

nice one Korn

Anonymous said...

Sorry, 4:07, but 2:18 was not posted by Korn.