Barefoot Cellars soars since becoming part of Gallo

Barefoot Cellars might have a laid-back image as a wine brand, but it's running wild in the marketplace.

The brand, acquired in 2005 by E.&J. Gallo Winery of Modesto, had sales of about 4 million cases last year, winemaker Jennifer Wall said.

That was a sevenfold increase over 2004 for Barefoot, now a prominent member of the large Gallo portfolio.

Wall, who started working for Barefoot's previous owners in 1995, said the brand has benefited from Gallo's marketing and distribution prowess and its access to quality grapes from the San Joaquin Valley and other California regions.

"We were kind of a bootstrap operation before and were undercapitalized," Wall said Thursday from her home in Windsor, Sonoma County. "That is no longer an issue."

The wines were made in Graton, Sonoma County, before the sale. Since 2005, Gallo has done the crushing and fermenting at its Livingston winery and the bottling at its Modesto headquarters.

The wines -- nine red, white and rosé varietals -- have a suggested retail price of $7, but they often can be found for $5. Barefoot also has a line of $10 sparkling wines.

The volume has surpassed Turning Leaf and Redwood Creek, two of Gallo's other "popular priced" wines, Wall said. These are products that cost more than jug wines but less than premium bottles.

Industry consultant Jon Fredrikson included eight Barefoot wines in his list of two dozen "hot" products in 2007.

"Barefoot basically tore up the market last year," he said at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento last month. "It was strong across the board."

Barefoot won the 2007 Wine Brand of the Year award from Market Watch, a general business magazine. It cited the rapid sales growth and a "free-and-easy, contemporary image" among young drinkers.

The wines are aimed at people who might like to sip them at the beach or other informal settings. Barefoot co-sponsors beach cleanups and a beach volleyball league to reinforce the message.

It also spreads the word by pouring wine at many fund-raisers for environmental, health and other causes.

Wall, a 39-year-old Sacramento native, has a biology degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She holds the "winemaker" title at Barefoot, but with today's volume, she mainly oversees the work of others.

The brand got its start in 1965 as Barefoot Bynum, a jug wine made by Davis Bynum in Albany, Alameda County. The name refers to the old way of crushing grapes.

The brand went dormant in 1973 and was acquired in 1986 by Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, who ran Barefoot until the sale to Gallo. (Harvey's foot was the source of the wine-colored footprint on the label.)

Wall said the purchase by Gallo, one of the world's largest wine companies, did not mean that Barefoot would lose its distinctive character. She said she aims for products that are consistent and "varietally correct" while remaining affordable.

"There are stylistic notes that you can pick up across the product line that are true to Barefoot," she said.

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This story was originally published March 1, 2008 at 4:48 AM with the headline "Barefoot Cellars soars since becoming part of Gallo."