American Wine Comes of Age
As the quality of American-made wine improved, consumers began to notice. Between 1968 and 1972, Americans doubled their spending on wine, much of it from California. Foreign travel and increased prosperity contributed to what Time magazine called a “growing ease and worldliness in American lifestyles.”
“A Wine and Cheese Party,” 1970
Julia Child taught Americans about wine as well as food. She devoted a 1970 episode of The French Chef to a wine and cheese party, encouraging viewers to learn about pairing wines with cheeses. Most of the wines on the table are from France.
Photo by Paul Child; courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
E. & J. Gallo
Brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo, sons of Italian immigrants, built their wine empire from the bottom up. Starting after repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the Gallos took over their father’s grape-growing business and set out to make affordable wine by becoming what Ernest called “the Campbell Soup company of the wine industry.” Ernest handled marketing and sales and Julio oversaw production, an arrangement that lasted until Julio’s death in 1993; Ernest died in 2007.
