Top Winemaker Julio Gallo Dies In Jeep Crash Off Hilltop

Wine baron Julio Gallo, who along with his brother Ernest founded what is now the largest winery in the world, was killed yesterday when his Jeep plunged off a remote, hilltop road on his son's ranch in San Joaquin County, Calif. He was 82.

Julio Gallo - whose personal fortune was thought to exceed $265 million, according to Forbes Magazine - was the winemaker half of a lucrative sibling partnership. The brothers parlayed a small family business into a company that sells one of every four bottles of wine in the United States.

"They revolutionized the American wine business," said food and wine critic Colman Andrews. "They brought a level of sophistication - which may sound like a strange word to use for them - to the production and marketing of mass-market wines."

Gallo's wife, Aileen, 80, and his granddaughter, Gina Gallo, 26, also were injured.

Larry Fragoso, of the Tracy Rural Fire Department, said Gallo was driving a new Jeep Wrangler along a narrow one-lane road when the accident occurred.

"I guess he just lost control of the vehicle, or it slipped," said Fragoso, who reported the Jeep rolled down a 35-foot embankment and landed upright in shallow water.

Riding with Gallo, along with Aileen and Gina Gallo, was a second granddaughter, Amie Gallo, who was not injured. Fragoso said Amie Gallo hiked 3 miles to a ranch house to call for help.

Ellen Hawkes, author of a new book, "Blood and Wine," about the Gallo dynasty and the two reclusive brothers, said Ernest Gallo headed marketing and sales for the company, whose annual global sales hit an estimated $849 million, and Julio Gallo headed up winemaking and production, and grower relations.

Julio "always wanted," she said, "to focus more attention on making fine wines and upgrading the image. I think he was also much more interested in developing fine wines and blends that would be more attractive."

He had been spending more time in the Sonoma County vineyards growing the varietal grapes. "It had become his real passion, and he and Robert (his son) were concentrating on those vineyards," said Hawkes.

But it was different decades ago, among wine-resistant Americans. The Gallos made their mark, according to Impact, a trade letter published in New York, by recognizing "early on that the majority of Americans were unfamiliar with wine and didn't much care about corks or barrel aging. In fact, they reasoned, those factors were intimidating to neophyte wine drinkers."

The company remained one of the largest privately held consumer-product concerns in the nation, as the Gallos kept a firm hand on every aspect of production, shipping and distribution, and spent millions every year on promoting their products.

The company was always close-mouthed about its operations and the Gallos themselves.