Dark Horse

Dark Horse are wines from the E. & J. Gallo Winery.

Quality with history-Dark Horse

Gallo Winery was founded in California in 1933 by the two Gallo brothers, Ernest and Julio, after Prohibition. Today, Gallo is a dominant and trend-setting company on the American, as well as the international wine scene. Yet they have always remained true to their traditional roots. Dark Horse was introduced to the Gallo family in 2010. The background was to produce a wine that surprises consumers and that is priced below average but still tastes very high quality. To achieve this, techniques were used that are not normally used on this scale. Also, the markets are always closely monitored. Thus, one makes sure that the right wine is introduced at the right time and possibly only in the right country. Dark Horse can fall back on more than 400 winegrowers, who deliver the first grapes. After that, the grapes are processed with a lot of passion and high skill. "The rest is the part of the art that comes into play to blend all those flavors and textures," is how Beth Liston describes the process.

Winemaker  Beth Liston- the face to Dark Horse

Beth Liston graduated from college in San Luis Obispo. There must have been hundreds of wineries within an hour or so of here. Already several friends were working in this field and for Beth it seemed like a cool job. Then, shortly after her 21st birthday, she started her first job at a winery that specialized in making sparkling wine using the Champenoise method. She immediately fell in love with the industry, especially the fascinating combination of art and science, and that every day and every harvest is a new challenge. Each winemaking is a new learning process and Beth challenges herself in everything she does. She finds new inspiration for new, different wines not only in the wine industry but also in other trends, such as beer or cocktails, or even on her travels. 

California- Home of Dark Horse

California is known as the motherland for wine growing in the USA. This state is especially famous for the grape varieties

• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Chardonnay
• Zinfandel and
• Merlot.

Almost 90% of American wine is produced here, especially in the regions along the cool Pacific coast or in the hot interior. Therefore, different soil types and different climatic conditions also affect the vines. In the relatively small Napa Valley alone, there are about 30 soil variations. So nothing stands in the way of varied and interesting wines from California.