George McConnon is an importer of fine estate bottled wines from Slovenia. George is also a veteran of thirty years in the California wine industry, spending about six years with the Bronco Wine Company. Bronco is one of the largest in the world so we asked him to share a little bit of what that experience was like. But before we get into that, lets learn a little about Bronco since it's not exactly a household name.
Bronco was established in 1973 by brothers Fred and Joseph Franzia along with their cousin John Franzia. The Franzias were nephews of Ernest and Julio Gallo and probably got their start in the industry through them. Like Gallo, Bronco has its headquarters near Modesto.
The money to start Bronco came from an unlikely source, Coca-Cola, which purchased the existing Franzia winery of that time. So the Franzias join the long list of wine industry families that have sold their name which means the Franzia boxed wines in the grocery stores have no relationship to the Franzia family. They are now owned by The Wine Group which purchased them from Coke.
The selling of a winery name is actually all the buyer wants. Usually these larger players don't need the vineyards or the actual winery. They just want an existing profitable brand name. It's just the way it is in the industry now.
George McConnon says Bronco now markets wines under 319 labels including notables like Rosenblum and Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck.) They are the largest vineyard owner in the world with seventy thousand acres in vines. Many of their wine labels weren't active at the time of their purchase or never were an entity before being created by the company.
Bronco is vertically integrated owning five huge wineries with bottling and storage facilities across the state. They turn sixty-one million gallons of grape juice into 125 cases of wine a day or sixty-five million cases a year. George says if a grocery store wine label shows no wine appellation other than just California, it's probably from Bronco. He said that with a smile so it's an overstatement but it also reflects his over all appreciation for the company. He said the Franzias were nice folks and treated him well.
Allegro Moscato is a sweet white from California currently promoted by Bronco. That one is in stock currently as are several other California appellation wines that may also be from Bronco AND George's fine Slovenians are also here.
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