It was under unhappy circumstances that the Gallo brothers inherited the family vineyard. In 1933, their father murdered their mother and then killed himself. Ernest and Julio, in their early twenties, took on the responsibility of raising their teenaged brother, Joseph.

With the money their father had left, they invested in a winery. At the time, the young men had no idea how to make wine, Julio checked out some books on winemaking from the public library, and they were on their way. In the 1950s, Ernest discovered that poor blacks were, buying large quantities of 40- proof port and mixing it with lemon juice. He decided to develop a wine suited to those tastes. The result was Thunderbird. The wine earned the company a great deal of money (2.5 million cases were sold in the first year), but it also earned Gallo an unwanted reputation as a producer of cheap wine.

The Gallos survived, however, to produce more Gallo wine and the popular wine cooler Bartles and Jaymes. Today Ernest and Julio Gallo is the largest producer of wine in the United States. The youngest Gallo grew up and bought himself a ranch where he raised cattle and sold Gallo cheese. In 1986, a family feud erupted. The older Gallos sued the younger for the use of the Gallo name. Ernest and Julio won, so today you will find no Gallo cheese to go with your Gallo wine.