California wine giant Gallo to close 70-acre Napa site
E. & J. Gallo Winery is to permanently close the Ranch Winery, a large production facility set on 70 acres in St Helena, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice filed with California authorities. The site, acquired by Gallo in 2015, will see 56 employees lose their jobs as per the notice.
The filing also details staff reductions at Louis M. Martini Winery and at the Orin Swift tasting room in St Helena, as well as in Healdsburg at J Vineyards and at Frei Ranch, another sizeable production facility. Layoffs will affect departments including winemaking, hospitality and culinary, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
In a statement to media outlets, Gallo said: “Gallo is aligning parts of our operations with our long-term business strategy to ensure we remain well-positioned for future success. As part of this process, we made the difficult decision to reduce certain Wine Country operations. These changes are driven by market dynamics, evolving consumer demand and available capacity across our wineries.”
Two years of retrenchment
Gallo has been in a major downsizing phase for two years amid what it described as a global wine industry crisis characterised by slumping sales, declining alcohol consumption and a grape oversupply. The downturn is not expected to bottom out for another year or two, according to the same source.
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In 2024, Gallo sold two Central Coast winemaking facilities, its Edna Valley site in San Luis Obispo and the Wild Horse winery in Templeton, while retaining the Wild Horse brand. Last July, the company announced it was closing its final Central Coast facility, Courtside Winery, a 300,000 square foot production site in San Miguel, affecting 47 jobs.
Wider strain across the US market
As previously reported by the drinks business on 19 January 2026, Constellation Brands is to close the Mission Bell winery in Madera County, with the loss of about 200 jobs, owing to rapidly shrinking demand for commodity brands.
Constellation sold some 30 brands to E. & J. Gallo Winery in a US$810 million deal in 2020. That transaction included a five-year production contract at Mission Bell, which Gallo is not renewing.
Between October 2024 and August 2025, 38,134 acres of vineyards in California were grubbed up, according to Natalie Collins, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers. In a db interview, Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Wine Grape Commission, said, “It’s a bloodbath for all grape growers across California. It is the worst market condition growers have seen in their lifetime, with farmers in their 80s telling me they have never seen it this bad before.”
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