Gallo Be Thy Name

The Inside Story of How One Family Rose to Dominate the U.S. Wine Market

By: Jerome Tuccille

Narrated by: Grainger Hines

Gallo Be Thy Name is the portrait of an American dynasty that rose from hardscrabble poverty in the early 1900s to become the most successful wine company in the world through toil, cunning, and crime. From selling Dago Red to Al Capone during Prohibition to conquering America's wine market with such plonk as Thunderbird and Ripple, and from the Great Depression to the roiling farm labor movements of the 60s and 70s, the Gallos rode the turbulent currents of history to triumph, with iconic brothers Ernest and Julio steering the ship. But beneath the E. & J. Gallo Winery's carefully polished surface is a sweeping story of passion and power, swirling with rumors of murder.

©2009 Jerome Tuccille (P)2009 Zondervan

An informative read. Big bite of US history.

Forget the negative reviews. This was quite an interesting story, a big bite of US history for the last century, because the Gallo Wine Company went from nothing to being currently, the biggest winemaker in the world. The narration was, in my opinion, well done, but a bit slow. If your player can adjust speed, set it at approximately 1.15 times the normal speed and the story moves quite well.

Mispronunciations

The author of the book has to be very dissatisfied with the number of repeated mispronounced words. Was a little distracting. I guess it’s an old recording. The story was interesting. An update might be interesting.

Distracting Mispronunciations

Someone please teach the reader how to pronounce wine related words like varietals, vintners, pinot noir and others. Also notable egregious mispronouncing Auschwitz. These were so distracting. Otherwise an interesting story about a pretty seedy family in wine history.

Resident of Modesto verified authenticity of book.

All was good, I lived through the era of the younger son trying to get his independence and to make his own mark, you presented very well. Thank you.

Great story, poorly written and narrated

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book feels very disjointed for the first 1/3 or so of the story, making it difficult to keep up with who the characters are because you haven't spent enough time with any one before the discussion turns to another.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration was pretty poor. Mispronunciations all over the place were the biggest issue.

Was Gallo Be Thy Name worth the listening time?

If you enjoy stories about wine families, as I do, the story itself warrants a listen. You simply need to be prepared to be a little lost at the beginning and ignore all of the wine-related mispronunciations provided by the narrator.

Fascinating read. Distractingly awful reading.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. Overall informative.

What did you like best about this story?

They were truly awful people. Always fun to see where moguls come from.

Would you be willing to try another one of Grainger Hines’s performances?

Absolutely not. You speak for a living. Please check out your pronunciation. It's not "pinot noyer" or "malbe". He's constantly missing or adding letters in the commonest words. It's painful to hear.

How do you pronounce that?

Great story and very useful information regarding America’s wine history. Some of the winemaking jargon was mispronounced, but consistent.

Narrative quality mirrors wine

I thought someone could have put this narrator up to mispronouncing so many words to troll the readers who are at least familiar with California wine.

Never been to Heraldsburg, but apparently, they produce fine veritull wine there.

Interesting tale, poorly performed by narrator

I knew going in, based on other reviewers, that narration was a problem with this audio book. In listening to the sample, I didn't think the narrator's voice would grate, so off a-listening I went, knowing that most narrator's of wine books frequently mispronounce wine terms. Sadly, the reviews were all too right, only it wasn't merely mispronunciation of wine terms, it was both wine terminology and plain old english usage that he could not get straight. Or off cadence, and even substituting words on several occasions ('substantial winemaking' instead of 'sustainable winemaking' as one of too many examples). I even thought at several points that he sounded 'under the influence' while performing the reading. Unfortunately, the many mistakes made by the narrator got old towards the end of the book. Maybe he got tired of reading it.

On a positive note, the story to me is interesting within an historical context - other reviewers have suggested the author is at times factually inaccurate, but this audiobook is so long, and the history of the Gallos subject to so much revisionist history of their own making, that who knows on that end! After 12+ hours I have a basic enough picture and am not going to go back to fact check.

Disgraceful

The reader mispronounced way too many words. At some points in the story there was overly poetic language that was obtuse. And at other times in the story it was way too exacting and read like a high school biography. Oddly written with weird turns in perspective and tone. But I wanted to learn about this family of capitalists, so my goal was attained.