Month: June 2021

Delicato Family Wines, which has quietly become one of the fastest-growing wine companies in California, is now adding the sizable Francis Ford Coppola Winery portfolio. The company announced today that it is acquiring the wines and brand names of Francis Ford Coppola Winery, including the Diamond Collection, Director’s Cut and Sofia, as well as the Francis Ford Coppola Winery and Virginia Dare Winery facilities and the Archimedes Vineyard, all located in Sonoma.

The Coppola family will continue to own and operate Inglenook in Napa Valley and Domaine de Broglie, the Oregon Pinot Noir property they purchased in 2018.

No purchase price was disclosed. The parties expect the transaction to be completed within a month. Until the purchase is final, Delicato staffers say details about future plans for the brands and properties will not be disclosed. In a statement, CEO Chris Indelicato said, “There is a strong cultural fit between our two companies, and by combining two highly complementary portfolios, we create a more diversified winery.”

The Indelicato family has been in California wine for four generations, first planting vineyards in Manteca in 1924, and has grown to total sales of more than 16 million cases a year. Their diverse portfolio includes California brands Gnarly Head, Noble Vines, Z. Alexander Brown and Black Stallion. Their fine wine sales and marketing portfolio includes partnerships with Australia’s Torbreck Vintners and Chile’s Casa Real and Triple C, among others.

Delicato is perhaps best known for the boxed wine powerhouse Bota Box, which grew sales by 41 percent in the last year, to 11.3 million cases, and nearly doubled in size during the past three years, according to Impact Databank, a sister publication of Wine Spectator .

Filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola first entered the wine industry in the mid 1970s, when they purchased a part of Napa’s Inglenook winery in Rutherford, piecing back together the historic property over decades and buying back its name. The Coppolas’ wine interests moved in two directions simultaneously: They developed both the Napa heritage property and its high-end wines and their higher-volume, value-priced brands and tourist destinations in Sonoma.

Francis cemented his presence in Sonoma in 2006 when he bought the former Chateau Souverain winery and established operations there. In 2015, he purchased the old Geyser Peak winery in Geyserville, setting up the brand Virginia Dare there. He also established brands such as Sofia, Pool House, Archimedes, Diamond Collection, Lost Colony, Pitagora, Mamarella, Rosso & Bianco and Roanoke. All of these brand names, including his interests in spirits and cider, are included in the sale.

With Inglenook and Domaine de Broglie not included in the sale, it’s safe to assume Coppola will focus his efforts on his premium wine operations. He will also join Delicato’s board of directors, and winemaker Corey Beck will join Delicato’s executive leadership team as executive vice president of production and chief winemaker. Coppola is also reported to have acquired an equity stake in Delicato as part of the deal.

“Over my lifetime, Coppola has become a household name across America,” said the vintner, in a statement. “What started as a dream to buy a family cottage in Napa Valley has turned into a million-plus case business producing iconic award-winning wines.”

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