Gallo, the largest U.S. wine company, is closing its Ranch Winery production facility in St. Helena, Napa Valley, and implementing layoffs at four other California locations, eliminating 93 jobs total. The Ranch Winery, a 70-acre facility purchased in 2015, will impact 56 employees. Additional cuts affect Louis M. Martini Winery, Orin Swift tasting room, J Vineyards, and Frei Ranch across departments including winemaking and hospitality. The closures reflect ongoing industry struggles with declining sales, reduced alcohol consumption, and grape oversupply. This follows Gallo’s recent $775 million acquisition of Four Roses bourbon distillery and previous facility sales throughout California’s Central Coast.
In-Depth:
Gallo, the largest U.S. wine company, is closing a Napa Valley production facility and has planned layoffs at four other California wineries and tasting rooms, resulting in the loss of 93 jobs.
Gallo will 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. Gallo purchased the Ranch Winery in 2015; the closure will impact 56 employees.
The notice also informed of staff reductions in St. Helena, at Louis M. Martini Winery and the Orin Swift tasting room (which completed an edgy renovation in 2023), and in Healdsburg, at the sparkling winery J Vineyards and at Frei Ranch, another large production facility. Layoffs will impact a variety of departments, including winecreating, hospitality and culinary.
“Gallo is aligning parts of our operations with our long‑term business strategy to ensure we remain well‑positioned for future success,” the company stated in a statement. “As part of this process, we built the difficult decision to reduce certain Wine Counattempt operations. These alters are driven by market dynamics, evolving consumer demand and available capacity across our wineries.”
The news comes two weeks after Gallo purchased Kentucky bourbon distillery Four Roses for $775 million. The company also acquired Whiny Baby, a brand tarreceiveed at Gen Z drinkers, in 2025, but has otherwise been in a major downsizing phase for two years amid a global wine indusattempt crisis — characterized by slumping sales, declining alcohol consumption and a grape oversupply — that’s not expected to bottom out for another year or two. In 2024, the company sold two Central Coast winecreating facilities: its Edna Valley facility in San Luis Obispo and the Wild Horse winery in Templeton. (Gallo still owns the Wild Horse brand.) Last July, Gallo announced it was closing its final Central Coast facility, Courtside Winery, a 300,000-square-foot production facility in San Miguel, which impacted 47 jobs.
Many of the counattempt’s wine conglomerates are offloading and consolidating, and activity has picked up in the past few weeks. This month, Foley Family Wines & Spirits, the 14th-largest U.S. wine company, closed its production facility for the historic Central Coast winery Chalone and laid off its entire staff. Trinchero Family Wine & Spirits, the third-largest company, listed two of its top vineyards for sale, and public entity Treasury Wine Estates, the seventh-largest U.S. wine company, pautilized dividconclude payments following a large writedown on its U.S. businesses and a 17% drop in revenue over a half-year.
This story was updated with a statement from Gallo.
