The Largest Family-Owned Winery In The U.S.’s Fierce Commitment To Hiring Women

Each step was completely nerve-wracking for Gina as she walked to have a serious talk with her grandfather. She wanted to be part of the family wine business as a winemaker instead of the sales path that she was initially placed on. The journey seemed endless for this young lady – the anxiety was building as she made her way along the long lane then through their vineyards until she found herself in front of her grandfather Julio. Grandpa Julio was always the grandfather who insisted that his grandchildren put the toys back in their boxes before they left, he was the grandfather who gave out dried fruit for Halloween instead of candy and although Gina knew he loved her with all of his heart, she wasn’t sure how he would handle her request.

Her grandfather never went to college, as not only did he come of age during the Great Depression, but he was part of a modest farming community in Modesto, California where taking a break from full-time farming was never an option. Until his last breath, Gina said that her grandfather’s greatest love was the soil, protecting the land and living a life where everything that reached the table was fresh and local. Her weekends were filled with both grandparents coming to the table with fresh ingredients that came from everyone’s farm, as both sides of the family lived within walking distance of each other, and the wine was always there, bringing people together and being vital to their way of life.

Gina’s grandfather Julio and great-uncle Ernest would go on to eventually establish E. & J. Gallo Winery but even with success, Gina’s grandfather always reminded her to never forget the importance of family, the land and that wine was part of their way of life. As she went off to college to study psychology as she loved people, Gina started to experience how wine was a wonderful vehicle to connect with other college students. She ultimately decided to work for her family and her love for people seemed perfectly matched with sales. Despite Gina learning a tremendous amount about wines in general, as she learned about wines from around the world while she was selling them, she quickly realized that she was not cut out for it as she would feel sorry for her customers, who were the retailers and restaurant owners she sold to, and she would keep putting off when she would pick up the checks for bills due. Gina went to her father one day with the news that sales may not be the best place for her long-term, “I really enjoy sales” Gina started to tell her father and she continued “but if I stay in sales I think I will be giving the farm away.”

Since Gina already knew how to farm vineyards, she grew up helping to manage the vines on their property, she wanted to learn how one makes the grapes into wine; the drink that had been at the center of her life. And so, since her grandfather was the winemaker of the family, he was the one she had to talk to that fateful day… her grandfather did not hesitate to put her to work making small batch wine from vineyards that they worked with from all over California.

Not only did Gina’s grandfather have a great influence over her path in life, there were also a handful of women along the way that would teach her about all sorts of aspects of winemaking, such as her professors at U.C. Davis as well as a famous winemaker and business woman named Zelma Long, who is still shaping the wine world today. Through time, Gina would bring on more and more female winemakers to join the various wineries that are owned by E. & J. Gallo and it became so noticeable to her father, at one point he said to her, “What is going on? You are infiltrating something?” with Gina replying, “Maybe.”  

Building a Female Tribe

E. & J. Gallo Winery has a reputation of becoming one of the largest family-owned wineries in the world that encompasses a range of wines that can be for everyday drinking within a modest price point to small family wineries that are more on the high end of their cost and quality. They are also a company that gives everyone an opportunity to advance through hard work and taking advantage of the various workshops they offer. And although Gina certainly appreciates all the talented male winemakers and wine growers that work for them, it was important to her to also bring women into roles that were traditionally held by men at one time.

Nicole Hitchcock started working with Gina as a winemaker in 2010, after nine years in the business, working on wine blends together and then Nicole was made head winemaker in 2015 at J. Vineyards & Winery. Nicole went on to explain that the founder of this winery, Judy Jordan, was a real “visionary” as she believed in the potential of making top quality sparkling wine in the Russian River Valley knowing that the climate and soil were ideal for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Despite Russian River Pinot Noir wines becoming extremely popular through the years, J. Vineyards has kept a focus on sparkling with their portfolio including 12 different sparkling wines as well as ten Pinot Noir and some Chardonnay, a rosé and Pinot Gris. In 2015, Judy Jordan sold J. Vineyards & Winery to Gallo as one of the toughest things in the wine business is keeping it financially sustainable and so the sale allowed her to start a new chapter in Napa and Oregon while having financial security. When Nicole was brought in to take over as the head winemaker of such an incredible estate that was started by one of her female heroes, she said it was “a dream come true.”

Partnering with Women in Other Countries

Gallo not only owns an incredible portfolio of wines that, many times, come with historical properties but they will also handle the distribution of wines across the U.S., which can be one of the most complicated parts of selling wines. One such producer is Brancaia in Tuscany, Italy, run by the daughter of the family who owns it, Barbara Widmer. And not only is Barbara the winemaker who oversees all three of her family’s estates but she is also an outsider in regards to being a native of Switzerland. But America loves an outsider who decides to go on a path that perhaps goes against their lineage but is inline with her passion.

Barbara’s parents fell in love with Tuscany when they were vacationing there and ended up buying an estate in 1981. But Barbara was expected, like many other young people in her hometown of Zürich, to go into a more corporate professional career and so she thought architecture was a way to combine her love for painting and studying. Midway through the program she had to help her parents out at their winery in Tuscany and she was completely enchanted with the whole process of making Sangiovese as well as Bordeaux blends. “My first harvest was really magic because it is when I was completely happy for the first time in my life” and so she went off to study wine as well as work at Switzerland’s largest organic wine producer to gain experience before taking the reins at her family estate in 1998.

The magic of wine is something that carries through to all of these women as even Gina Gallo, whose family created one of the most well-known wine companies in the world, was captivated by this beverage that had been around Gina her entire life – growing it and seeing her family drinking it. But Gina notes that most of the wine being consumed in California while she was growing up could have been placed in three categories: a white, a red and a rosé. Not until she studied enology at U.C. Davis did she understand that there were a lot of “layers and complexity” to it and it still fascinates her today.

Women Invited to be Part of an Historic Vineyard

At Gallo, women are not only invited to be a part of taking on historic winemaking roles but to also be a part of becoming custodians for historic vineyards such as the steep, rugged terrain of the Monte Rosso vineyard in the Mayacamas Mountains – 1,300 feet above the Sonoma Valley. The vineyard has been owned by the Martini family since 1938 and when Gallo bought Louis M. Martini from family members in 2002 they kept on the winemaker, Michael Eddy, who had spent over a decade being mentored by Michael Martini. But a new fresh face would end up taking charge of the Monte Rosso iconic vineyard.

Brenae Royal’s path has been an unorthodox one considering her family’s background as she notes, “I come from a family of teachers and doctors, so when I started raising pigs, my family thought, where did she fall off?” But her memories of spending time with her grandmother in the garden ran deep within her so being a farmer was really appealing. But raising pigs would not last as she focused more on horticulture science in college. During her senior year she turned into an “old lady” with her fun nights consisting of Apothic Red, a puzzle and Jeopardy!. When she went to her last career fair, she went up to the E. & J. Gallo booth and there, lo and behold, was a magnum of Apothic Red. At that moment Brenae knew she had to work for Gallo and that she was confident that whatever vineyard challenge they gave her she could farm it – and she was hired a week after graduating.

Brenae became the vineyard manager for the Monte Rosso, a vineyard with vines that range from four months old to over 130 years old. It was challenging as she was brought in to bring a lot more innovation that would help them to be more selective with the grapes, getting three different styles of wine within the same block and that her new way of doing things was a little off-putting for the older Hispanic men that dominated her team. “I was this bright-eyed 24 year old that was right out of college” and so she understood that she needed to earn their respect and trust as she knows a vineyard manager is nothing without her team.

This year she will celebrate working with E. & J. Gallo Winery full-time for eight years and as she looks over her old, gnarly vines in the Monte Rosso vineyard, she is completely in awe of “being part of history” and when she holds a bottle of Monte Rosso in her hands, she imagines her grandchildren one day drinking that wine… a wine from an iconic vineyard that she was an integral part of making.  

Heart’s Desire

When Gina thinks back to that conversation with her father many years ago when he noticed she was bringing in lots of women to the winemaking side, she asked her father if he minded what she was doing to which he answered, “of course not”. Sometimes it never even dawns on someone to go outside the box when it comes to selecting a different looking kind of person for a particular job.

Today, Gina says that E. & J. Gallo has over 55% female winemakers as well as considers people from all walks of life to oversee iconic vineyards especially when outside the box thinking can assist in keeping old vines going as well as getting the best out of them. It is certainly always encouraging when tiny family wineries trust a female in the family business to take on a role that is traditionally held by a male but when a business has reached the scale of Gallo, making an effort to find the best person for various estates, no matter their sex, helps to make female representation so prevalent within the winemaking world it is no longer questioned whether a woman can handle a particular job.

And to think, it all started with a young Gina Gallo taking that leap of faith with that long walk to her grandfather’s house that would eventually lead her to creating a community of women, working behind the scenes shaping the wines, because her grandfather and father did not stand in her way. As Gina talked about the few women who mentored her, she also expressed how frustrating it was that there were only a couple of women who were considered leaders in the wine world when she was coming up but today that has greatly changed.

“Follow your heart” Gina’s father always told her and that way she would be “happy, healthy and find success.” And because she followed her heart’s desire, many other women get to do the same.

E. & J. Gallo Winery has a ‘Women Behind the Wine’ education fund that helps to empower the professional development of the next generation of women in the wine, food and beverage business. The scholarship is awarded through the Women of the Vine & Spirits Foundation which insures talented women can focus on their skills and education and not worry about the funding.

2014 J. Vineyards & Winery, Vintage Brut, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley California: 52% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 13% Pinot Meunier. Stunning nose with white flowers, hazelnuts and wet stones that had creamy, fine bubbles on the palate and a nice acidic backbone to balance the richness.

2018 Gallo Signature Series, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley, California: 100% Chardonnay from three vineyards: 85% Laguna Vineyard, 11% Del Rio Vineyard and 4% Two Rock Vineyard. This wine has such a special place in Gina’s heart as her grandfather picked this vineyard in the late-70s and he really believed in Chardonnay grown in the Russian River Valley. A beautiful baking spice note on the nose intermixed with honeysuckle and ripe peaches that had golden apple flavors on the palate with a silky texture and rich, bright flavors on the long finish.

2016 Brancaia, ‘Il Bru’, Tuscany, Italy: 70% Merlot, 25% Sangiovese and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon from their Chianti Classico vineyards. An intense sense of place with this wine with gravel and tar notes that are accented by black cherries and ripe blueberries that really allowed the beauty of Sangiovese to shine with a bright acidity and floral notes that gives a nuanced beauty to this complex and finely structured wine.

2016 Louis M. Martini, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma Valley, California: 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc and 2% Malbec from 100% of the Monte Rosso vineyard. Deeply concentrated wine that had an intriguing nose of fresh leather and iron notes that was complemented by luscious cassis flavors with a hint of mint that overall was a stellar wine with power that had many subtle layers; a big shouldered wine in regards to structure and tannin that helped to give shape and drive to the decadence and make it a Cabernet Sauvignon that had that ‘wow’ factor but also leaves one always wanting another sip.