1997 Gallo Family Vineyards / Gallo of Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon Barrelli Creek Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley (9/20/2016)
An old friend…a wine boards darling back in the day…I was told I alone with my praise of this wine accounted for 100’s of cases to be snatched up the days I posted a note!! Oh the days of the ultimate QPR…they just don’t make um like they use to!
Well…decided to check in on this 19yr old…since today is the wife and I’s 19th Anniversary(had Gallo wine at reception…I’m from Modesto people)! Bubbly later…the Gallo is kind of like us now…older, yet still rockin! Still plenty of sweet plum, cherry, currant fruit…little sour skin…but alive non the less. Lots of sediment in this bottle, which there has always been from day one…REALLY nice leather and old cellar dust, cedar spice, mint/decayed leaves, compost, tobacco pouch. Acidity had soured…short and drying finish…but still enough sweet fruit to balance. This wine was never suppose to be this complex, never suppose to age…it’s Gallo for God’s sake! But it is, it did…suck it Screagle! (92 pts.)
I went thru a ton of these back in the day. IIRC, Stephen Pohlman and I always remarked on how much sediment they had. It was always a great wine that surprised people how good Gallo cabs could be. Mine are long gone, but glad to hear you had a last hurrah. Any left?
The upper-ish tier of Gallo reds were solid, if I remember correctly. One day, after convincing a few customers to buy it regularly, it disappeared from local distribution.
A good friend brought a bottle of this to one of our annual reunions. We grilled a beef tenderloin and had 14 reds blind, including an 89 Lynch Bages. The Gallo showed so well, I picked up a few bottles to hold for future reunions. I have one left. Looking forward to opening it.
I went to the same high school as the Gallo kids and was buddies with some of the boys on the Coleman side (Jim Coleman ran the glass plant at the time and married Julio’s daughter, Sue Gallo). Anyhow, their house had a stocked cellar of 1978 Gallo Reserve Cabernet which is basically what I cut my teeth on in the late 80’s and early 90’s and to some degree led to my love of wine today. It was the go-to bottle when the parents were out of town.
Here’s the scoop on the '78 Reserve…its all Sonoma County Cab aged in massive slovakian oak tanks at the Modesto winery. It wasn’t released until the mid- 80’s because Julio Gallo hated malolactic fermentation and it was hard as a rock for years . Funny story that gets told to me repeatedly by my COO (who was one of Ernest Gallo’s marketing guys for over a decade). He complained about the no-malo prejudice at a board meeting whereupon the legendary Albion Fenderson (EVP of Marketing and Kingmaker at Gallo) looked at him and said:
Albion: “Doug, don’t you know we employ the world foremost authority on malolactic fermentation”
Doug: “No, I didn’t. Thats great!”
Albion: deadpan “His job is to prevent it from ever happening”
Fast forward: My recollection of Gallo’s mid-priced 1997 single vineyard wines is that they had just introduced roto-fermenters to their process. I had really enjoyed the 1994/95 Frei Ranch and Barrelli Creek wines, which had a real tannic bite. (They also threw huge amount of sediment over the years.) At a store tasting, a Gallo rep proudly expressed that starting with 1997, they used this cool technology so that the cabernet wines were softer at release and customers wouldn’t have to wait. That didn’t seem like an advantage to me. So Buzz, I’m kinda surprised that the '97s aged this well given how much attention Gallo paid to early pleasure. Nice surprise!
Regards,
Peter
Yeah, things changed dramatically when Marcello Monticelli took over the reins, I believe, shortly after Julio passed away. If you haven’t met Marcello before, he is one of the kindest, most generous guys you’ll ever meet. He also made that Barelli Creek Cabernet mentioned here.
Oh the days of the ultimate QPR…they just don’t make um like they use to!
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So Buzz, I’m kinda surprised that the '97s aged this well given how much attention Gallo paid to early pleasure. Nice surprise!