To listen to Gina Gallow share her passion for her craft is enough to persuade any dreamer wishing to follow their heart and pursue a profession dedicated to their passions into acting on it! As this month of celebrating women kicked off a few weeks ago I had the chance to join Gina and several of her fellow female Gallo winemakers and vintners on a discussion of their story, their wines, their passions. Filled with a lifetime of tales, the grand-daughter of Julio Gallo, this third-generation winemaker is quick to share stories of growing up inside one of America’s historic winemaking families.

Growing up on the family estate with her parents and grandparents, Gina was always around wine, food, and family, with big Sunday gatherings bringing the families together, using produce grown and picked by Gina and her father and grandfather, and prepared by her mother and grandmother and shared around a family table filled with stories of their history. Everything was real, natural, honoring Mother Earth and the gifts of the land.

This history is honored in all of her Gallo Signature Series wines created to celebrate her family which started their winemaking in America in 1933, but her Gallo Signature Series Russian River Chardonnay ($36) in particular with the Laguna Ranch Vineyard being the base of this beautiful wine. Filled with her personal history, this vineyard holds a special place in Gina’s heart as it was once an apple orchard where her grandfather would pick apples for her grandmother to use in her favorite apple pies. Those apple notes shine through in the rich, well-rounded wine. The wine opens with layers of golden apple, lemon blossom, and honeysuckle, followed by layers of baked apple, lemon curd, golden peach, and a touch of soft, fresh herb notes with texture, structure, and character.