Archives for the 'wine' tag
Review of ‘Gallo Be Thy Name’
My review (download PDF) of Jerome Tuccille’s recent release Gallo Be Thy Name: The Inside Story of How One Family Rose to Dominate the U.S. Wine Market, appears in the newest issue of the Journal of Wine Economics, just released today.
Tuccille is a good writer, and neither fawns over his subject nor takes needless swipes. He and the Gallo boys definitely grabbed my attention from the beginning, and held it until the end. A background snip:
The “inside story” of the Gallo wine empire and its progenitors, brothers Ernest and Julio, Gallo Be Thy Name is an engaging and thoughtful look at the making of the world’s largest privately held, family-owned winemaker. Jerome Tuccille, author of more than two-dozen books—including respective biographies of Donald Trump and Alan Greenspan, four novels, and several how-to guides—mostly succeeds in the endeavor. While readers of true crime and celebrity tell-alls will no doubt revel in Tuccille’s tales of murder, familial rancor, deception, and mafia dealings, devotees of wine economics will appreciate Tuccille’s faithful recounting of the Gallo family’s saga as a story of two sons of an Italian-immigrant family rebuilding the American wine market, one jug at a time. From exposing the Gallo family’s well-guarded successes during Prohibition to its post-Prohibition expansion and subsequent boom as the result of savvy marketing and distribution decisions, Tuccille shows Ernest and Julio together possessed a unique ability to respond to the demands of the American wine consumer across more than seven turbulent decades.
[...]
Perhaps the most interesting competitive advantage Gallo Winery enjoyed was the result of familial competition between the brothers themselves. It’s a story of specialization Adam Smith himself would love. Ernest’s goal, writes Tuccille, was to sell more wine than Julio could produce, while Julio’s aim was to produce more than Ernest could sell. When Ernest outdid Julio in this respect, the brothers began to buy grapes from other Napa growers so that supply could keep up with demand. While Tuccille makes clear that Ernest was a businessman nonpareil, it’s possible Julio, the expert winemaker, lost the competition because his heart was elsewhere. From early on in their venture, Julio had hoped that the American wine palate—dulled by the strong liquor and sweet wine prevalent during Prohibition—might recover its senses so that he could make the dry, high-quality, varietal wines he preferred. Still, the market forced Julio for decades to produce a stable of cheap, sweet, nondescript reds and whites. Julio’s lifelong wish would not come to fruition until near the time of his death several decades later.
Buy the book here. Subscribe to the journal–which has published some really interesting research (this, for example)–here. And yes, in case you’re wondering, I have consistently had a succession of 1.5L jugs of Carlo Rossi Paisano on my kitchen countertop since I read the book, and question your sanity if you, too, do not do the same.
What’s Buzzing in the World of Beer?
Maine lawmakers already looking to amend new law permitting stores to hold beer and wine tastings. Seems one provision in the law–wouldn’t you know it, but it’s “for the children”–has forced store owners “to cover [the] front and back door windows with black and drape a sheet across the large storefront windows” anytime they want to do a tasting. [Bangor Daily News]
One man’s guns for beer program backfires. [Crossville Chronicle]
Texas says you can give away beer, you just can’t tell people you’re going to give it away beforehand. Or something. [Clocking In]
Oh, the humanity! This beer’s “quite putrid”! Lowenbrau from the Hindenburg disaster up for auction. (As an aside, is it really a “disaster” when a Nazi airship covered by swastikas blows up?) [BBC]
Sam Adams brews up a beer with 27% alcohol. Available for a mere $150 per bottle. [Houston Chronicle]
The Pause That Refreshes–A Links Roundup
Health care and financial markets are not enough. The Obamas are now going to lead us on the path of righteous eating, for the children of course.
A self-described libertarian anarchist hates Coke. Interesting. The ones I know enjoy capitalism. Is it because he’s English?
Speaking of capitalism and marketing, here’s an example of it modern style courtesy of Chipolte, providing you hefty calories with INTEGRITY.
Whether it’s from calories with integrity or those without, we’re fat. The world is getting fat. So let the modern hand wringing begin: Write a book!
People are too fat, but food still costs too much in the developing world. It’s not particularly cheap either in these cities.
An economist walks into a bar…
In Movies: The Day California Wine Grew Up
The Judgment of Paris is coming to film this summer. No, it’s got nothing to do with the heiress or with the city’s notoriously unfriendly residents. It’s all about the wine.
The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the “Judgment of Paris” was a wine competition organized in Paris in 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, in which French judges did blind tasting of top-quality chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon wines from France and from California. California wines rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world’s best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win.
The movie, which comes out in the U.S. this August, is titled Bottle Shock. Though Variety digs it, the movie features a mostly underwhelming ensemble cast–which worked for Sideways, that other wine movie, but not for many other films. I’m guessing it won’t work for audiences, especially as there also lurks a competing movie about the same events (and packed with more star power), titled Judgment of Paris. Journalists hate when that happens.
