2007年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-Ernest Gallo's Dream of a Wine Business

With a loan from a relative and a recipe he found in the basement at the local public library, Ernest Gallo founded what would become, at one point, the world's largest winery. The legendary 1 wine maker 2 died Tuesday at his home in Modesto, California. He was 97.

Ernest Gallo and his brother Julio founded ENJ Gallo Winery in 1933 with just three employees. From the beginning, their goal was to turn America into a wine-drinking country by producing wine the average men could afford. Adam Armstrong is the editor and publisher of Wine Enthusiast 3 Magazine. He began his career working for the Gallo brothers and he joins us now, so glad you with us.

Glad to be here, Michelle.

Now, when the Gallo brothers began their business, did they actually have a vision that California would one day hold this exalted 4 place as a wine-making region?

Well they had a dream and they believed in that dream, and that in their passion was what really, er, drove wine and introduced wine to Americans and they had a vision that someday America could be a wine-drinking nation. And then States really come to provision in the last few years, but the building blocks of this wine-drinking nation were really founded by Earnest and Julio Gallo. It's kind of interesting these are two men who really, their sales marketing 5 background with it, prematurely 6 instinctual, but their techniques are today the prototype of sales in marketing textbooks in the best business schools in America.

Their techniques, tell me about them.

Well, the understanding is, what's really basic about getting your product in a place where people can see it, the best positioning, and understanding the retail 7, and the dynamics 8 of distributing products. They started with affordable 9 wild base wines which they believed would find their home on more American tables for then the other and Ernest single-handedly convinced the consumers that wine was something they should try it they did enjoy. And one of the things they did was they took the risk and they used television for a product that really wasn't well distributed, which touted 10 the delicious flavors of wines such as Hardy 11 Burgundy and Shabbily blonde. Those were some of their earlier wines. And because of this risk, er, more people walked into the doors of they heard it called liquor stores and they asked for a product called wine.

Now I wanna ask you specifically about the tragedy in the Gallo family. Is his father shot himself?

They claimed? OK, that his father, Um, shot his mother and his father. But you know we don't really know what happened. But when you think about someone like Earnest and Julio, taking a personal tragedy like that and parleying it into a passion, I think that's, well, that's the real thing to focus on.

Eventually Gallo did move into higher end wines, they brought up some of their competitors, as they started up Saloma a few other labels, but were they ever able to shake their reputation as a producer of table wines, wine for the common-men.

I think yes, and they had a difficult challenge coz many people believed you need to build a brand top down, but Ernest believed that he want to establish a brand with a large authority as a people. And they are creating some superb single veneers 12 and Wine Enthusiast Magazine rating went into the nineties, so that's their goal and that's their massage 13, they have great wines for people at all price points.

Well, Adam Armstrong, thank you so much for sharing stories about your friend, Daniel Mentor 14, thank you so much.

Thank you, Michelle, I'm appreciate the call.

This is Adam Armstrong, he is the editor and publisher of Wine Enthusiast Magazine