Napa's Delicato Family Vineyards changes name, forms upscale wine sales division
As part of the continuing shift toward upscale wines, Napa Valley-based Delicato Family Vineyards forms a new sales-and-marketing division dedicated to such brands and changes the company name.
Family-owned and -operated Delicato announced on Jan. 24 a new division, Transcendent Wines, focused on representing and selling fine wine.
The Transcendent Wines portfolio will include Black Stallion Estate Winery Limited Release Wines (Napa Valley) and Diora Wines (Monterey/Santa Lucia Highlands), as well as luxury agency brands Merryvale, Starmont, Profile and Forward Kidd (Napa Valley), and Dobbes Family Estate Wines and Wine by Joe (Willamette Valley). Transcendent Wines will also represent imported luxury estate wines such as Schloss Vollrads, Franz Keller and Bischöfliche Weingüter (Germany), Santa Rita's Casa Real and Triple C (Chile), and Torbreck Vintners (Australia).
The Delicato Family Wines portfolio will continue to include popular-priced wine brands such as Bota Box, Noble Vines, Gnarly Head, Z. Alexander Brown, Black Stallion, 1924, Three Finger Jack, Toad Hollow, Mercer Family Wines and imported brands Santa Rita 120 (Chile) and Schmitt Söhne Family Wines (Germany).
Delicato also announced that it is modifying its corporate identity from Delicato Family Vineyards to Delicato Family Wines. The company said that better reflects its "evolution from a bulk wine producer to a diversified portfolio of leading popular, luxury, imports, and agency brands."
The Indelicato family planted their first vineyards in California in 1924 after Gaspare Indelicato emigrated from Sicily to California, and founded the company now run by his grandson, Chris Indelicato. In 2010, Delicato Family Wines entered the ranks of the top 10 largest branded wineries, said to be the first to do so in more than 20 years.
Since reaching that milestone, Delicato said it has become the second largest contributor to industry revenue growth and the second fastest growing top 10 winery in the U.S., reaching the 10 million-case-a-year mark in 2017.
'This is a natural progression in Delicato's continued growth strategy to build a world-class domestic and import portfolio of leading brands,' President and CEO Chris Indelicato said in the announcement.
V2 brands that were part of the Delicato and V2 alliance are now fully integrated into the Delicato organization. The ownership of V2 Wine Group LLC remains unchanged, and Dan and Katy Leese will continue to support the agency brands, Delicato said.
