Over three generations, the Indelicatos have built a portfolio of wines that offers diversity at a world-class level. Their impressive line-up includes such renowned labels as the Francis Ford Coppola Winery and Black Stallion Estate. It all began in 1912 with Gaspare Indelicato’s decision to leave the limited prospects of his native Sicily and seek a better life in the United States of America. Twelve years after disembarking in New York, he rolled up his sleeves on the opposite coast of the US, planting the family’s first grapevines in California vineyards that are still cultivated today.
The path to success
By 1935, Gaspare was producing an annual 13,000 litres of cask wine. His sons Tony, Vince, and Frank expanded the vineyards over the following decades, solidifying the winery’s foundation. This did not go unnoticed in the bustling California wine scene of the 1970s During this time, important producers in California approached the brothers to vinify wine for them. For several decades, Delicato became a reliable source for other wineries. It could have been easy to rest on their laurels, but the opposite happened. With the well-educated third generation of the family entering leadership roles at Delicato, headed by CEO Chris Indelicato, his brother Jay and their cousins who remain active in senior positions, the family shifted the winery’s focus radically around the turn of the millennium. Their new goal: To succeed in the market with their own brands.
Black Stallion Estate & Francis Ford Coppola
Delicato has made significant and unique contributions to the wine industry through their projects. In 2010, acquiring Black Stallion Estate Winery marked an important move towards becoming a luxury wine supplier. Subsequently, the family has expanded its holdings in several regions in California, one of the highlights being the purchase of vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands. In Lodi, once the Gold Rush country, they developed Three-Finger-Jack wines, a brand exploring the full potential of grapes from old vines. However, their biggest coup came in 2021 when they acquired the namesake winery of famous star film director Francis Ford Coppola – along with an Oscar-worthy portfolio including premium brands such as Coppola Diamond Collection and the Director’s Cut series, as well as elegant sparkling wines.
California in overview
Today, the Indelicato family produces wines at six different winery locations, offering a diverse panorama of Californian wine culture. From the Pacific-influenced hills of Sonoma to the prestigious vineyards of Napa and the Mediterranean-like plains of the Lodi region to the cool parcels south of Monterey, they produce expressive interpretations of California’s most important varieties. Five different Zinfandels provide a major highlight: Diamond Collection, Gnarly Head, Brazin, Three Finger Jack and the Director’s Cut are all award-winning and distinctive versions of the Zinfandel grape variety and the varying terroirs.
Delicato's wines capture California's varied landscape and cautiously, yet fearlessly, push the boundaries into uncharted realms, breaking taboos along the way. With the simultaneously nostalgic and visionary brand ‘1924,’ whose name honors the year of the winery’s founding, they tread paths that reference the wild times of Prohibition, utilising innovative aging methods in used whiskey or bourbon barrels, providing the wines with a thrilling flavour profile. This approach has found appreciable success in international markets such as Germany, Denmark, Canada and Japan.
Ready for the next 100 years
Delicato Family Wines’ growth has resulted in annually increasing revenues in the double digits, a steadily expanding export sector, and accolades everywhere. For instance, Black Stallion Estate was recently named American Winery of the Year 2023 by the prestigious magazine Wine Enthusiast, as well as Delicato being named 7x “Best Producer USA” from the Mundus Vini Wine Competition. Despite their successes, the Indelicato family remains solidly grounded, holding on to long-established core values. Fundamental concepts such as ‘hard work,’ ‘respect for nature,’ or the realisation that, as a forward-thinking family business, one must pass things along better than they found them, hold paramount importance. This means continuous improvement, guided by consistent sustainable thinking: a state-of-the-art vinification, bottling and aging facility testifies to the implementation of these intentions, as does the adoption and use of conserving practices, including lightweight glass bottles, solar panels, electric tractors, and recycled irrigation water, where Delicato is able to do so. The path for the next generation is now set. Everything indicates that the next 100 years at Delicato will be as successful as the previous century.
