Word: modesto
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Workers in the Gallo fields in Modesto, Calif., were members of the United Farm Workers Union until April 1973, when, the UFW charges, Gallo signed a contract with the Teamsters Union based on a non-democratic election. Gallo denies the charges...
...huge metal cylinders that look like an array of petrochemical tanks. Alongside them are rows of mostly windowless industrial buildings that sprawl over an area as large as six city blocks. This symbol of technological power is not a pulsing refinery; it is the E. & J. Gallo Winery of Modesto, Calif. Inside the cylinders, millions of gallons of California Burgundy, Chablis and rosé age. Inside the buildings, squads of chemists pore over their latest oenological formulations, while viniculturists experiment with ways to improve soil and vines. Wine-the beverage that was prescribed as a medicine by Hippocrates and celebrated...
Born near Modesto, the brothers grew up working the small vineyard owned by their father, an immigrant from Italy's northern Piedmont. "We had a tractor in the barn, but we didn't have enough money to buy gas," recalls Ernest. "Instead, we used four mules and worked the vineyards seven days a week from daylight to dusk." With the first stirrings of repeal, they dug up $5,900.23 in capital and set out to produce their own wine. They rented a railroad shed for $60 a month, bought a $2,000 grape crusher and redwood tanks...
There was one nettlesome problem: though they had plenty of experience growing grapes, they did not know how to make wine. In the Modesto public library, Ernest found a pair of two-page pamphlets, one on fermentation and the other on the care of wine. Thus enlightened, he made the rounds of local grape growers and soon had enough grapes to make all the wine that the tanks could hold-but no customers for it. A few days before Prohibition ended, the brothers received a form letter from a would-be wine distributor in Chicago. Ernest Gallo immediately hopped...
Both Gallos live quietly in houses on the Modesto vineyard. They arrive at the office at precisely 8 a.m., spend the day in frequent communication with each other, and knock off at 7 p.m. When the Gallos entertain, usually for visiting company executives, they serve only their own wines-a white, a pink, a red and a champagne. Says Ernest: "Only when Mrs. Gallo and I are at home alone, which is not very frequently, will I drink my competitors' wines in order to follow their progress." Ernest and Julio are both at the age when many men retire...