Gallo Be Thy Name: The Inside Story of How One Family Rose to Dominate The U.S. Wine Market [Audiobook] [CD]

Gallo and Exxon have much in common. Gasoline is still a little cheaper, but their production volumes have a certain affinity for their markets. They both age. A little. Both face a glut. As for aroma and taste, well, in a blind taste test...no I will not spoil it.

This is a story of the Gallo family. Jerome Tuccille has some twenty-five books credited to him. He boasts several lines of business in books. If you like books that explore the broken headed families of those grasping for riches, you might enjoy this book. Do not come here for history, business or wine. There are some informative passages on California wine companies, government and advertising.

Book I is the nightmare story of the immigrant founding family, full of death and then cops and mobsters. Less than interesting as here written, but it explains how the second generation was deformed. Book II begins with an economics lesson. Before 1913, the government of the United States took in one third of its revenues from alcohol tax. We were very close to the Russians of the same period. The most interesting idea in this book is that Prohibition was repealed because the government revenues from the new Income Tax were shriveled by the Great Depression. Sounds familiar now, does it not?

By 1935. Gallo produced 350,000 gallons. Thy had storage for 350,000 gallons. Mr. Tuccille writes that Gallo sold 941,000 gallons. I wish he told us how.

Gallo did not age wine. They produced a syrup of what Mr. Tuccille calls Dago Red. It was illegal, but he does not give any details. Rather than cultivating, aging and caring, Gallo preferred additives like caramel, sugar, and stronger spirits. Gallo was a customer of the local coal-tar producer, but claimed never to have bought any. Good thing, because it causes cancer even as a topical application, let alone ingested.

World War II brought new opportunities for Gallo. This great Patriot went into the business of falsifying his costs to the War Department, for his sale of alcohol to produce synthetic rubber, among other of his ventures.

By the war's end, we are told Gallo controlled 3/4ths of the grapes grown in California. We are not told how. The 1946 harvest crushed 1.6 million tons of grapes, a 40% increase over the previous record. Mr. Tuccille does not say how. He does not bother to say what the effects were. Somehow, Gallo was able to "dictate prices" somehow, although the market price went from $1.75 to $0.38, he tells us. This is control? To further contradict himself, Mr. Tuccille says the grape growers banded together in cooperatives, the largest of which comprised 275 growers storing nineteen million gallons by 1950. Gallo stored a million and a half by then. Nothing adds.

Mr. Tucille is not so good with geography either. He has Ernest on vacation in Agliano d'Asti, driving north to Lourdes, France -- you know, where Switzerland used to be. Obviously of Italian heritage, he translates "bagna", as he says, "literally", as "sauce", not bath. Just a warning in case he invites you over.

A justifiable portion of the book is given over to the cheap sugary pseudo wines that fueled the empire. But our author goes after Red Foxx as touting on late night TV, being ripped on Ripple. How much effort was it to write that Mr. Fox was on a hit prime time sit-com where he really said he made Champipple from ginger ale and Ripple.

The rest of the book is given over to the insane, destructive family antics and warfare. This book is too careless to have proper notes and references. Instead we are given imprecise and chatty commentary for each chapter at the end.

"Gallo Be Thy Name" tells the story of the family which came to be a major player in the world wine market. The book mostly presents the family stories of three generations of Gallos. It chronicles the development of the company from a small California provider to a large company whose products spread across the globe.

During Prohibition, generally a difficult time for wineries, the Gallos prospered and expanded, largely by selling grapes, for cash, to the Capone operation in Chicago. Patriarch Mike Gallo liked to get his payments directly from Capone. With the repeal of Prohibition the Gallos went legit and continued to expand for decades. After the death of the founder, the growth of the winery continued under the leadership of his sons, Ernest and Julio, who would become the names associated with the business in the eyes of the nation. They would each take on duties of the business, Ernest for marketing and Julio for production. Throughout the years the business would prosper in the low cost, mass wine market, while aspiring to be recognized as contenders in the higher quality markets.

Author Jerome Tuccille does a good job of telling a story of business success marred by personal tragedy, a family torn by lawsuits but resilient enough to achieve dizzying heights of success. Founder Mike, who was viewed as a tyrant by his sons, and his wife Susie were found dead in 1933, either by murder or murder-suicide. Their grandson would later commit suicide. Their son, Mike, Jr., would later be sued by his brothers, Ernest and Julio, over an alleged trademark infringement and would counter sue over his parents' estate. Ernest and Julio would prevail in litigation, at the cost of permanent estrangement from Mike. Despite his feelings of betrayal, Mike would achieve success as a cheese producer.

This book does a good job of telling the story which, in some ways, sounds like "The Godfather" without being judgmental or turning it into a soap opera. He tells how the business was involved with the mob during prohibition and was often brushing with the law. As success followed, Ernest and Julio would buy political protection by their lavish campaign contributions. Although the family friction and squabbles would be unfortunate, the Gallos are not portrayed as a group of dysfunctional individuals, as is the case with some other prominent families. They come across as hardnosed business people who did what was necessary to succeed. The writing style is journalistic which, as good journalism will, holds your interest without arousing your emotions. I recommend this to anyone with an interest in family histories, the history of the wine industry or the history of California.

Gallo Be Thy Name is an unvarnished view of an American wine dynasty which rose from poverty in the early 1900's to become of the most successful wine companies in the world. Crime, cunning, and triumph, along with rumors of murder, is the background of this intriguing story. The Ernest and Julio Gallo Winery has a carefully crafted and polished image, which bespeaks a tale of passion, greed and ambition. An enjoyable read which gives a different perspective to an example of a rags to riches American family's success.