Helen Gallo Bryan, Wine Industry Steward, Boston (USA)

Years in The Industry:  

Since the age of 22, I have worked 38 satisfying often hectic years in the wine industry. These years have come to define the person I am today. I could not have dreamed of a career so fulfilling, and yet so challenging due to the nature of our industry’s evolvement in nearly four decades.

In the early eighties, living in New England there were not a lot of jobs in the industry especially for women and twenty something women at that. Often, I was the only woman present in meetings where the “Me Too” movement would have had a field day. 

After living and studying in Strasbourg France for a year drinking gorgeous Rieslings, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris, I knew upon returning I was going to seek employment in the wine industry.  The wine job did not happen right away.  I taught high school biology and bartended my way into conversations that hopefully would help get me my first wine job interview. In 1982 I was presented two job offers that piqued my interest.  One was with the Ernest and Julio Gallo Winery on premise and the other was with the Taylor Wine Company post the purchase of Sterling and Monterey Vineyards. I accepted a job with Gallo where I worked for eight years in various positions.  By the way, there is no relation.  However, my last name certainly allowed me access to great parties in NYC when I showed my business card! This was key in your twenties or “clutch” as my teenage boys would say. 

Although I reported directly to the winery in California, I was based in New England and the Metro NY area. These were more sophisticated wine regions for sure at that time which led me eventually away from domestic wine hurling me fast and furious into the imported wine segment of the industry. At that time, E & J Gallo was not involved in fine wine as they are today.  I had various jobs with Gallo everything from a field marketing manager to launching Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers in Metro NY. 

My last stint was a National Accounts manager calling on contract feeders like Delaware North and Marriott Host International which managed the purchasing of wine for ballparks, stadiums, airlines, ski areas, and cruise ships. Even today, I reflect on the valuable experience I had working for the Gallo Winery. These years were packed with in depth management development and accountability. A thorough education starting with a good foundation in wine 101 sales, compliance, distribution, pricing and follow up. “Inspect What You Expect” was the mantra for developing good leadership skills. The experience developing contacts and valuing “the business of relationships” could not have been more important to the importing and selling of fine wine.  

In 1990, I left the E & J Gallo Winery.  After numerous positions in the wine business, I landed a job at Winebow Imports where I worked for nearly twenty years leaving as a Regional VP of sales.  I was hired after an impromptu wine test by Winebow’s founder Leonardo LoCascio.  It was the best, most challenging job ever.  One requirement of the job was for me to continually educate myself. Education was part of Winebow’s Mission Statement and particularly important to Leonardo. So, it was important to me as well.  

In addition to completing advanced level three of the WSET which at the time was held at Boston University-Metropolitan College. I enrolled in the Masters in Gastronomy program founded by Jacques Pepin, Julia Child, and Rebecca Alssid.  This advanced study was a great compliment to my wine career.

While learning about the wines we imported at Winebow, I always dug further to know the winery history, politics, regional food, and lore, etc., etc. I wanted to convey a sense of place in a different way other than soil types or trellising. The teacher in me wanted to know all that contributed to putting that wine in the bottle. Often politics, history, and tradition played a big part. Food and customs run deep in our wine culture and I wanted to share this knowledge while pouring wine at my dinner table or educating customers.   

The wine industry has afforded me the opportunity to travel extensively to various wine regions with knowledgeable wine colleagues.  This education was priceless.  In 2009, I was recognized by Wines of Italy with their Distinguished Gold Service award for having devoted over 25 years of my professional life to the sales and education of Italian wines and the Italian way of life in the US.  

The years have been challenging, working in an industry that functionally has not changed much in 40 years. We still, since prohibition, operate within the confines of the three-tier system. Although this is changing with the rapid expansion of other distribution models most notably DTC (Direct To Consumer).  Our US wholesaler network is a powerful entity that operates at the state level and strives with its lobby groups to protect this three-tier system.  Only recently have these wholesalers come to embrace the Direct to Consumer business model which is where I find myself gravitating today. 

I continue to advise and educate myself on this model of buying wine Direct. I love engaging a producer directly with people giving them an experience and a way of “connecting that passion” (of course six feet away)!  I am involved with a relatively new import company called Vero that is doing just that, “connecting passion.  Vero is owned by a passionate, intelligent American female with an Italian baker husband and dual citizenship.  We connected years ago through a mutual friend when she was at NYU business school.  Like many female startups, we have our challenges.  However, the interest is there evidenced by orders and the number of consumers and trade who want to buy these wines and olive oils directly.  Not to mention, the US federal and state governments interest in making sure they get their taxes from an industry channel that shipped nearly six million cases of wine DTC in 2017 and growing rapidly since.

My Biggest Challenge to Wellness:

In another time, if I spoke about my personal life as it related to wellness it was considered a weakness. Wine colleagues used to spew out all they completed before 9:00 am as a one-upmanship push towards the never-ending search for revenue and promotion. Is it because of the way I grew up in the industry that defines the way I work (and struggle) today? I think yes, finding personal time has always been my struggle which is somewhat generational too.  I worked during a time when I feared what a male boss might say about me taking personal time and believe me, I have heard it all. 

Over my career, I used to try to compartmentalize work and family which is difficult to do in the wine business. You cannot even start a conversation with an Italian winemaker without them asking about your “Famiglia”.  In my life, everything now merges after being diagnosed in 2018 with stage three advanced ovarian cancer.  You cope, you manage, and you pray.  There is no compartmentalization.  Cancer threw me into full-blown menopause early and abruptly which presents a whole other list of challenges some of which are bone loss and insomnia.  The effects of chemo drugs have a whole other set of challenges.   

I am a nurturer and nurturing is a great quality to have.  However, it can be draining if you do not find time to nurture yourself.  I am not a believer that a part of my life must suffer to be good at another part. Having two children in my 40’s, breastfeeding, and pumping my milk while traveling, however, awk-ward was something I did to nurture my boys.  Helping customers and mentoring young professionals were other forms of nurturing. However, when cancer stares you down in your 50’s…you have a wakeup call that it is time to nurture yourself! 

Like many men and women in the wine industry, I juggle a lot. When my day wine job duties are done there are always the wine events, the wine dinners, and travel to get to the next wine gig (usually encompassing an entire weekend). In full disclosure to my husband and children, I often leave a day early for business travel to get my paperwork done, share a meal I did not cook with a good customer.  Follow that up with a good night’s sleep and I am temporarily refueled in a ‘90’s sort of way.  It took years to accept that this was an unrealistic pattern to maintain.

How I keep it Together to Stay Well:  

Thank God for my husband Dave who has been there for me throughout my career every step of the way.  We definitely share in the duties of raising our boys. 

Wellness is now incorporated into my day…scheduled in with the phone off. It took years to stop putting “me-time” on the back burner. Now I enjoy my family, engage my teenagers in the discussion, walk my dog, cook, and garden.  Sometimes I stay well in more cerebral ways like puzzling, yoga meditation, genealogy, or just sitting down with paper and pen catching up on handwritten correspondence something I have always done and enjoy.  I also collect postcards and vintage paper and randomly send them to people.  A simple way of old-time “generational” connecting!

As I move through the chapters of my life in this industry I treasure relationships I have made and continue to nurture.  There will always be new interests and people continually populating my life but, nurturing the ones I have is important to me. I am humbled daily, by the kindness of colleagues, friends, and family especially on my journey with cancer. I have nurtured my health with everything from supplements and CBD oil to reducing animal proteins and leaning towards a more plant-based diet. To stay well medically, I explore immunological studies, alternative therapies, and rely confidently on my great medical surgical oncology team here in Boston. 

As I answer these questions for ABG, we are in the middle of the COVID19 Pandemic. Boston has yet to surge and I have been hunkered down “Sheltering in Place” for nearly two months since March 9, 2020. I have elderly parents and in-laws I have not hugged. Colleagues and friends, I have not seen other than on a Zoom call and teenage boys homeschooling on a platform not easy for Boston Public School students.  I pray for families everywhere that they are getting what they need to make the best of this situation.  I struggle daily with the Covid19 news and the suffering it has caused.  I relish the daily jokes, mimes, acts of kindness, and prayer that surround us. What good will come out of Sheltering in Place? 

I worry about what happens to human interaction that includes touch?  Will we ever shake hands again, enjoy massages (one of my go-to wellness cures), or sit packed into a concert hall?  I understand that other peoples’ wellness depends on my wellness during this pandemic.  One thing we can all be sure of post-pandemic is that Jerry Seinfeld’s fear of the “close talker” will be diminished with continued Social Distancing.

 You can connect with Helen on LinkedIn or Twitter @hgallo , via Instagram @h_gallo or online at Vero Vino Gusto.