This seems capricious, Gallo is a very successful Family Owned company, as is Jackson Family Wines. A big conglomerate is Constellation or Diageo or Pernod Ricard or Bacardi. They have turned around and improved many brands like Louis M. Martini, while providing greater resources to many to help them, like Siduri.
You are right you get to choose where you spend your money, but to say you’ll only spend it with less successful or historical families seems odd.
Dupe
Not to mention the big conglomerate French and European companies. I get the idea of helping out the little guy but if a big guy still made great wine, I wouldn’t hesitate. My problem with Pahlmeyer is that in the 1990s they were spectacular. Then they got bigger and riper and changed some vineyards.
If I recall, he is another of the property owners who had a spat with the authorities about bulldozing some land without permits and doing it during rainy season.
One of my son’s friends is a senior sales exec with Gallo’s wine division. He’s been smiling a lot the past few years. Hopefully Gallo has the sense to walk softly with regard to what gives these purchases the value they’re paying for.
Interesting to see that Wayfarer was not included in the sale. Perhaps not a big enough brand yet for Gallo, or perhaps Jayson was selling his legacy portion of the business and leaving Wayfarer for Cleo to continue building her own.
Cheers,
Steve
I hate when people make money!
old man screams at cloud
Oh come off it, Brian Thorne. There’s a big difference in the above folks saying they’re not going to support the label anymore after being bought by a big corporate conglomerate versus saying they’re upset the former owner made money. Nobody above has said the latter.
This. Sentiment of some seems to be, “I want you (winery) to be successful and make money, just not TOO successful and make TOO much money…as defined by me!”
What’s wrong with…if you like the wines when they were “small”, and you still like them when they get big/or are bought by a bigger company, you still buy them?
Nathan, an interesting take. What makes Gallo Evil , Inc.? Did they do something truly evil or just the assumption that large corporations are inherently evil?
Was the deal pre arranged? Do we know the terms?
Blake Gray’s article on this deal, including some interesting observations on what drove it:
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2019/11/gallo-swoops-for-napas-pahlmeyer
Not that at all.
I prefer to spend my own money supporting a more local winemaker/winery system.
I don’t care how much money someone makes, I simply prefer to support smaller scale endeavors.
I also don’t shop at WalMart, preferring more local businesses.
Do you have something against supporting locally owned or single owner companies?
Absolutely not! I support small locally owned companies AND larger companies. Workers at “big” companies need jobs just as much as those at smaller businesses. As long as the product is made responsibly and is of high quality, I’m going to give BOTH my $$.
I’ve spoken with both Adam Lee and Greg Brewer. Both of them have been more than complimentary about the support that Jackson Family have given them. I bought & enjoyed their wines when they were small. I enjoy them now, even as part of Jackson Family. So why should I stop buying them just because they are now part of a large company?
Yep, I’ve never been in a WalMart. I dropped Amazon Prime recently too–but it was more because how crappy they are to employees. Also Facebook. It was more for not being better, than being big (still like Costco). Dropped Outpost and Rhys this year. I still get more wine offers that I want to buy than I can while trying to be just a bit altruistic with my dollars. Gallo is probably better than LVMH though.
Anton, how does Gallo’s purchase make Palmeyer any less local or larger scale? Its just ownership. If they ramp up production at the cost of quality, sure, bail on them. Maybe Palmeyer needed Gallo to move forward.
Yes, because Gallo surely has the expertise to make world class (box) wine ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
Interesting that they bought the name and not the vineyards. It makes sense if the point is to sell brands without relation to the sources of the grapes. But it doesn’t seem logical for this particular purchase. A brand like the Prisoner or Meiomi has a big following and a name recognized by many people. Pahlmeyer is much smaller and in spite of the fact that the wines were “only” $150, they’re not supermarket wines and they’re way out of range for most people who aren’t wine fanatics. The people who do know the name are likely to know that it’s just a brand now, and one assumes they would therefore be less likely to shell out the $150.
As far as whether it’s owned by Gallo or a smaller player, that doesn’t need to be relevant. If they cared to, Gallo can certainly hire the same talent that Colgin or Harlan or Pahlmeyer can. I don’t know how Gallo does it, but people who’ve been bought have told me that Jackson often leaves them alone to make wine but helps out with investment, marketing, and distribution.
Been in the works for a while. Brother said he’s been waiting on the deal to close at least a year.
I would hazard a guess the 4 year contract on the Pahlmeyer vineyard is a backup if they can’t replicate quality off Stagecoach.
I understand the Pahlmeyer vineyard is in Atlas Peak. Is it near Stagecoach?