Ernest Gallo is not only gone, he’s also been forgotten, at least by the group that selected the first members of the Culinary Institute of America Vintners Hall of Fame.
Tonight, at a gala dinner in St Helena, Robert Mondavi will be the first inductee into the Vintners Hall of Fame. In the same week in which Gallo died at 97, the CIA has recognized eight other industry pioneers, and none of them is Gallo, the most powerful wine man in the world until Richard Sands and Constellation climbed to the top.
Gallo wasn’t even on the ballot, suggesting that how...