Gallo's Poll

Was buying some wine this past Saturday and I had a bottle of J's chardonnay on the counter. The guy who rang up my order told me that the J Winery was just bought by E&J Gallo (the "We will sell no wine before it's time" people). That seemed odd. What would a giant bottom-shelf wine maker want with a relatively small Sonoma winery? Then he said that Gallo is the largest wine maker in the US. Also surprising - I know they're in every supermarket, but so are a lot of brands. "They sell under a lot of brands." Ah.

How many brands?

60 or 70, at least. And all those brands grouped together is probably 1/3 of everything you'll find at a typical NC supermarket. So, yeah, I guess they are huge. And not just on the bottom shelf!

7 thoughts on “Gallo's Poll

  1. joel hanes

    The family’s younger generation wants to escape the bargain-basement branding of “Gallo” — fine wines carry a much higher profit margin than bottom-shelfers, not to mention prestige.
    I believe that some of their brands are fairly well-regarded in the “this is good enough for when I don’t have company I’m trying to impress” sort of way.

    1. cleek Post author

      I believe that some of their brands are fairly well-regarded in the “this is good enough for when I don’t have company I’m trying to impress” sort of way.

      oh definitely. a couple of them are regulars around chateau d’cleek.

  2. Mike Mundy

    Actually, that was Paul Masson:

    The Paul Masson brand is best remembered for its 1970s marketing association with Orson Welles, who promised for Masson: “We will sell no wine before its time.” An infamous outtake for one commercial from the Orson Welles campaign features Welles attempting to deliver his lines while very severely inebriated.

    – Wikipedia

  3. Jewish Steel

    We have a tradition of slapping our friends hand when they make a truly egregious pun.

    Hold you hand out.

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