Who Is Ernie Dosio
Ernie Dosio ran vineyards, managed other people’s farms, and hunted big game in Africa. He lived his whole life in Lodi – a mid-sized city in California’s Central Valley, roughly 30 miles south of Sacramento. Wine country. The kind of place where people know each other’s business and a handshake still means something. Dosio spent decades here building Pacific AgriLands into one of the region’s more significant agricultural operations. Outside of the Central Valley and a few safari clubs, his name meant nothing to most people.
| Detail | Data |
| Full name | Ernie Dosio |
| Age at death | 75 |
| Place of residence | Lodi, California, USA |
| Partner | Betty |
| Sons | Jeff, Blake |
| Company | Pacific AgriLands Inc. |
| Date of death | April 17, 2026 |
| Place of death | Lopé-Okanda, Gabon |
There is no Wikipedia page for Dosio. He was a private individual – not a politician, not a public figure. His biography never made it into encyclopedias during his lifetime.
Business and Career
Pacific AgriLands Inc. was Dosio’s main operation – headquartered in Modesto, California. The company handled farm management, custom harvesting, and equipment leasing for vineyards across the Central Valley. On paper it sounds straightforward. In practice, running 12,000 acres of your own vineyards while simultaneously managing farms for other growers across the region is a different thing entirely.
One of the company’s clients was E&J Gallo Winery. That name carries weight in California wine – Gallo is among the largest wine producers on the planet. His son Jeff ran the company as president. Blake, his other son, was also involved in the family business.
Dosio didn’t limit himself to running the operation. He sat on the board of the Lodi Winegrape Commission for years. He organized the Sporting Clays tournament in Bird’s Landing – an annual event that brought grape growers and wine buyers into the same room for nearly two decades. At ZinFest, he’d show up to set things up and stay to clean up afterward. Nobody asked him to. He just did it.
Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Winegrape Commission, put it plainly: sharp, meticulous, and someone who genuinely understood his vineyards. That kind of reputation takes time.
The charitable side was consistent too. Every year at AgFest he bought animals from local kids – FFA, 4-H – and then distributed the meat to employees and people who needed it through the rest of the year. He gave regularly to the Lodi District Grape Growers Association and others. He didn’t talk about it.
Net Worth
There are no precise public figures on Dosio’s personal wealth. Pacific AgriLands is a private company, and its financials were never disclosed.
| Basis for Estimate | Description |
| Land assets | 12,000 acres of vineyards in Modesto |
| Business scale | Farm management across the Central Valley |
| Major client | E&J Gallo Winery |
| Cost of final hunt | Approximately £30,000 |
| Media characterization | “Millionaire” |
Media reports describe him as a millionaire. For a California agribusiness of this scale, that characterization holds up: owners of comparable companies in the Central Valley often generate annual revenues in the multi-million dollar range. Land values in the region have risen sharply over the past two decades, further increasing the worth of his assets. The exact figure was never disclosed by Dosio or his family.
Hunting
Dosio had held a rifle since childhood – according to people who knew him personally. By middle age, hunting had become a second, parallel world: Africa, the US, licenses, trophies, safari clubs.
Over the decades he hunted across multiple African countries and throughout the United States. His trophy collection was considered one of the largest in the country. The mounts lined the walls of his private space – the so-called “Ernie Dosio’s Game Room,” where the Sacramento Safari Club held annual fundraising dinners. A table for eight cost $1,650.
Animals taken in Africa: elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion, gemsbok. In the US, Dosio hunted moose, elk, reindeer, wild turkeys, and geese. By most accounts, he had taken nearly every species of wild deer found on American soil.
Dosio worked with several outfitting companies. Records from Bobby Hansen Safaris document one of his hunts: he took a lion and a gemsbok, but the leopard got away that trip. The company promised to fix that on the next outing. There was no next outing.
All hunts were fully licensed and conducted in accordance with local law. Dosio operated on a conservation principle – regulated culling, not indiscriminate killing.
Memberships in hunting and civic organizations:
- Sacramento Safari Club – permanent member; the club held events on his property
- California Wildfowl – lifetime member
- California Central District Elks – “Great Elk” for 30 years
- Lodi Winegrape Commission – board member
His son Alec, 24, is listed as a director of the Sacramento Safari Club.
Death of Ernie Dosio
In April 2026, Dosio traveled to Gabon – a Central African country with some of the densest forest cover on the continent. His target was the yellow-backed duiker, a rare and elusive forest antelope. Hunting it requires a license and takes place in strictly designated zones. The trip was organized by safari company Collect Africa, at a cost of approximately £30,000.
Under local regulations, hunters were not permitted to bring their own firearms. The company supplied a shotgun and cartridges.
On April 17, 2026, Dosio and his professional hunter were moving through the Lopé-Okanda rainforest. The forest here is dense, visibility just a few meters. The group walked directly into five female elephants with a calf. The elephants charged immediately. The guide was hit first; his rifle was knocked away and lost in the undergrowth. Dosio was left with the shotgun. The herd trampled him to death. The guide survived, but sustained serious injuries.
Key facts about Gabon’s forest elephants:
- Shoulder height of a female – up to 11.5 feet
- Weight – up to 4 tons
- Charge speed – over 25 mph
- Gabon’s forests are home to around 95,000 forest elephants – approximately 60% of the world’s remaining population of the subspecies
Collect Africa confirmed the death of their client in an official statement. The US Embassy in Gabon handled the repatriation of Dosio’s remains to Lodi.