Gallo’s Glory : Wine-Cooler Kings Get Hot With Gold-Medal Winners

On the wall of Ernest Gallo’s second-story office in his winery’s handsome headquarters in Modesto, often dubbed “Parthenon West,” is a framed cartoon from the New Yorker. It shows two couples drinking wine in a restaurant. The caption reads: “Surprisingly good, isn’t it? It’s Gallo. Mort and I simply got tired of being snobs.”

Even before the Gallo 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon won a Double Gold medal--by unanimous vote in the blind tasting--at the 1985 San Francisco Exposition competition, one of the toughest, fairest tastings in the nation,--value has ever been the hallmark for all Gallo wines, from Hearty Burgundy to leading varietals. The newly released 1981 Northern Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon from the Reserve Cellars of Ernest & Julio Gallo ($9) is perhaps an even better wine, having had 59 months of cellaring in large Yugoslavian oak casks. The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from northern Sonoma grapes. It’s eminently drinkable right now but has the body and balance for good aging potential. Four years from now, even the most savvy enophile would be hard-pressed to identify the origins of this fine wine. Maybe Caymus? Maybe Clos du Bois? Maybe even Raymond Estate bottling? The Gallo ’78 triumphed over all the above in that 1985 tasting.

Despite his years (he will be 79 on his next birthday), Ernest Gallo is not one whit less driving in his total demand for fine, and finer, wines. I remember when he made the decision, revolutionary at the time, to buy Yugoslavian oak to age the oncoming vintaged Chardonnays and Cabernets, but of 4,000-gallon capacity, not the 50-gallon oak of French tradition. Those would come later.

Local observers of the Gallo vineyard estate in the Healdsburg-Dry Creek region have been nothing short of awed by the earth-moving machines sculpturing the gently rolling hills into potential vineyards, from what had been steep gullies and ridges of oak and brush. It had been discovered that this region was a microclimate ideal for the finest Cabernet Sauvignon. Now there are about 600 acres planted, with a 1,000-acre potential, for estate-grown Gallo Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon, perhaps a couple of years away. The 1981 Northern Sonoma Cabernet is a hint of what is to come. The cost of this move is staggering; just ask about the start-up costs of neighboring Domaine Michel, which is a miniature in comparison.

To support the new-image Gallo wines, the pago debito or “debt-payer” is the roster of generic wines, the volume producers: the Bartles & Jaymes Coolers, Chablis Blanc, Hearty Burgundy and the new Blush Chablis. The Gallo Blush Chablis ($2.99) obtains its color from Zinfandel and Pinot Noir grapes crushed and taken off the skins with minimal skin contact, giving just a hint of delicate salmon hue, and then blended, for complexity and continuity of color, with Chenin Blanc and French Colombard. It’s an all-purpose, chilled crowd pleaser, with an edge of sweetness (3.3% residual; 0.78 total acidity; 9.4% alcohol). Among the other Gallo wines enophiles should not miss: 1981 Oak Cask Cellar Select Zinfandel ($5) from old, old vines of North Coast vineyards, aged 36 months in Yugoslavian oak, with a fabulous nose, a briary-berry bouquet--round, smooth, a thoroughly Californian treasure; 1986 Limited Release California Sauvignon Blanc ($3.50), from largely Livingston-Merced Riverbank vineyards of quadrilateral cordon pruning, non-grassy grapes, pale silvery gold, a light and lovely companion for sole, chicken, even lamb.

And, of course, Hearty Burgundy, still the nation’s No. 1 red wine for quality and value: Gallo hallmarks across the board.

Photographed by Jeff Sarpa / Styled by Carlos Franco.