E&J Gallo Winery Expanding Into Tequila

(MoneyWatch)  In a profile in yesterday's Modesto Bee, Joe Gallo, CEO of E&J Gallo Winery, revealed that the company is expanding their reach in the spirits business with a new tequila. Gallo told the Bee that the tequila is "going to be made down in Mexico, and it's going to be 100 percent agave, which has to be produced and bottled down there. We're in the early stages of planting that. It's probably going to take a couple years ... before we get to market." The company launched New Amsterdam gin earlier this year.

Gallo, whose father was co-founder Ernest Gallo, is also betting on malbec as the new hot varietal. Gallo told the Bee, "Nobody knows for sure, but malbec has a chance to make a major run in this country," describing the Argentine varietal as "a better version of merlot."

In the article, Gallo also weighs in on how China and Russia play into the winery's future and how innovations like long-term contracts with grape growers and supermarket display cases helped the company grow from a small family-owned winery to a $2 billion business.

(Via Wine & Spirits Daily.)