Today’s LA Times brings the news of the death of Joseph Gallo. Who, you say? Gallo. He made wine, didn’t he. No, actually he didn’t.
A little history here. Many, many years ago, there was an Italian immigrant, Joseph Gallo, who married Susie Bianco. They had three boys: Ernest, Julio, and the youngest, Joseph. Joseph, the youngest by 10 years, was born Sept. 11, 1919, in Antioch CA, and was his father’s favorite. Just like another sibling rivalry (Esau and Jacob), being a father’s favorite wasn’t a good thing. As the favorite, Joseph escaped the physical farm work that Ernest and Julio were forced to do as boys. Complicating everything was a stormy relationship between the parents that ended in 1933, when the senior Joseph killed his wife and then turned the revolver on himself.
Six weeks after their parents died, Ernest and Julio invested $5,700 to form the E. & J. Gallo Winery. Joseph worked with his brothers to establish the winery. He entered the Army Air Forces during World War II, first serving as a gunnery instructor and then in the Philippines and Korea. Upon returning in 1946, he became ranch manager for his brothers and had three children with his first wife. Parallel to this, in 1940, Joseph began acquiring raw land and developing its grape-growing potential. He later expanded to growing other crops and raising cattle. The 4,000 acres of vineyards he amassed made him one of California’s largest wine-grape growers. In 1995, Successful Farming magazine recognized Joseph Gallo Farms in Atwater, just east of Livingston, as the nation’s largest farm, with more than 37,000 dairy animals and an operation that milked more than 17,000 cows.
Where did this milk go? Cheese. Which, unfortunately, Joseph wanted to market under his name, “Joseph Gallo Cheese”. He started doing this in 1982… and thereupon is older brothers sued him — claiming trademark infringement — and denounced the cheese as an inferior product that could damage the winery’s reputation. The lawsuit also referred to him as an unknown cheese maker. Joseph’s reaction was that “I have only got one name. I don’t know how I’m supposed to look for another one.” However, the federal judge ruled that using the Gallo name confused consumers, leading them to think that the cheese was connected to the winery. He ordered the name changed on the package. Joseph countersued, arguing that his brothers had used their parents’ estate to launch their E. & J. Gallo Winery in Modesto. He claimed that they owed him a third of the business. Dismissing the suit, the hearing judge lamented that the best witness — Joseph Gallo Sr. — “was out of the reach of the court’s process.” The legal battle drove a permanent wedge between Joseph and his brothers.
The cheese is now sold under the Joseph Farms label, and is the largest-selling retail-brand cheese produced in California.
As I said, a nasty feud, which folks in California will remember well. In related news (or perhaps it is the fates laughing), bottleneckblog is reporting that this morning a truck overturned on I-405 near Jeffrey in Irvine. The contents? Pink Gallo wine. Specifically, a big-rig hauling a cargo of wine bottles overturned, blocking three lanes of traffic while crews scrambled to clean up the broken bottles and sop up the mess, which snarled traffic all the way back to the Costa Mesa (Route 55) Freeway. Luckily, the rig’s driver managed to avoid hitting any other cars on the road as his rig sprawled across the three right lanes of the freeway.
