k e e p i n g
BUSINESS JOURNAL
b u s i n e s s e s
c o n n e c t e d ™
JULY 2019
VOLUME 4 ■ ISSUE 7
IN PROFILE
A new workshop in Turlock will give craft-lovers a chance to hone their skills while creating charming pieces for the home. PAGE 3
NEWS
Blue Diamond is undertaking an expansion in Salida which will feature a state-of-the-art facility meant to help the company keep up with the evergrowing almond industry. PAGE 7
DELICATO FAMILY WINES
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Delicato wine tasting room staffer Lee Ann Larson shares just some of the offerings that are available at the Manteca winery that is the ninth largest winery by sales in the United States.
High growth winery is major Manteca employer BY DENNIS WYATT
M
209 Business Journal
anteca’s biggest global reach in terms of commerce is wine. More than 13 million cases of wine created from grapes grown in California’s three leading vineyard regions — Napa-Sonoma, Monterey, and San Joaquin County — were sold worldwide in 50 countries during 2018 by Manteca-based Delicato Family Wines. The bulk was produced at the Delicato Family Wine’s main winery just north of Manteca south of French Camp Road and west of Highway 99. It was at that site 95 years ago that immigrant Gaspare Indelicato planted his first vineyard, which ultimately led to a family-owned enterprise that now records more than $500 million in annual sales making it the ninth largest winery in the country. The Indelicato family owns more than 4,000 acres of vineyards in the three-wine grape growing regions with wineries in King City as well as Black Stallion in Napa Valley. But it is the Manteca winery that is the juggernaut that produces wine that has been enjoying double digit annual growth and making 450 fulltime
local jobs possible with an additional 125 seasonal jobs during the crush season. That reflects a local payroll of $25 million that is more than double what Great Wolf Resort anticipates paying when they open their 500-room hotel and indoor waterpark in Manteca in mid-2020 that will offer 250 fulltime jobs and 250 part-time jobs. Companywide, the winery has 850 fulltime employees. The Manteca winery is in the midst of a three-phase expansion that when completed will roughly double its capacity and create about 15 percent more jobs. The biggest visible impact of the expansion is a 700,000-squarefoot plus building — currently the largest in the Manteca area — that will serve as a warehouse with several bottling lines along with a lab. When completed Delicato Family Wines will no longer be leasing a 533,000-square-foot plus warehouse in Spreckels Park between Ford Motor Co. Small Parts Distribution Center and Lineage Refrigeration Logistics. That will free up that space to allow Manteca to compete for more distribution jobs. The Delicato label per se has been retired in favor of 18 basic brands with the biggest three sellers being Gnarly Head, Noble
Delicato Family Wines • Delicato’s various labels feature price points from $15 to well past $100. • Companywide, the winery has 850 fulltime employees. • The Manteca winery is in the midst of a three-phase expansion that when completed will roughly double its capacity and create about 15 percent more jobs. • Delicato is the 9th largest winery in the world.
Wines, and Bota Box. The explosive growth of Delicato Family Wines — it was the 25th largest winery just 12 years ago and is now in the 9th largest — is attributed to a decision by the current generation to switch primarily as a winemaker’s winemaker producing wines for other wineries to concentrating on creating and marketing their own labels. It has allowed Delicato to far outpace the industry in terms of growth. Being a winemaker’s winemaker is what powered the winery’s strong growth from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Among the notable labels they produced were Almaden Wine and California Coolers.
Delicato’s various labels feature price points from $15 to well past $100. Their wines have been showered with hundreds of honors by international and national wine connoisseur organizations, wine magazines, wine critics, and the wine industry. The fact Delicato Family Vineyards for most of its existence was a wholesale producer as opposed to a retail concern may account for its low profile for much of those in the Manteca community who were unaware they have one of the nation’s largest and most successful wineries in their own backyard. It goes hand-in-hand with the fact few realize that the largest wine grape growing area in California is not Napa, Sonoma, or Monterey. It is San Joaquin County. In the latest United States Department of Agriculture stats, San Joaquin County in 2017 had 73,285 acres planted in wine grapes or more than 15 percent of the state total. That is followed by Sonoma County with 59,508 acres, Monterey County with 45,416 acres, Napa County with 45,339 acres, and Fresno County with 40,108 acres. The world’s largest winery is E&J Gallo in Modesto. There are two other top five wine compaSEE WINES, PAGE 10