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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A power surge, and Ernest & Julio’s … tequila?!?
The Fisher household, I’m relieved to say, is back up and running semi-normally after power was restored late Sunday night (9-21-08), seven days and six hours after the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio and chewed up its trees and power lines. Who’d ‘a thunk a hurricane could do this much damage to Ohio?
On the other hand, who’d ‘a thunk E&J Gallo would enter the tequila market? That’s the news Sunday from The Modesto Bee, which wrote a fine profile of the company and its current chief, Joseph Gallo — Ernest’s son.
Gallo lays out the company’s future, which involves “plans to expand into hard liquor like tequila, push wine sales into China and Russia, reintroduce an old favorite (sangria) and prepare for the next hot-selling varietal (perhaps malbec),” the Bee said.
Gallo is in the process of planting the agave needed to produce its 100 percent agave tequila, Joseph Gallo told the Bee.
What with all of the attention showered on other wine-and-spirits mega-corporations these days, it’s easy for Gallo to slip under the radar, but lest we forget, this is a company that sells more than 70 million cases a year, and Gallo said his family’s company is “growing at a pretty healthy rate.”
Besides, who among us who remember the ’80s could ever forget the Bartles & James commercials — “Thank you for your support.”
Hey, maybe they’ll bring back that tag line for the tequila marketing campaign. If it worked once …
