Napa’s Delicato Family Vineyards buys Blossom Hill Winery for Central Coast growth

Delicato Family Vineyards has acquired Blossom Hill Winery on California’s Central Coast, picking up growth capacity of 4 million more cases annually.

The Napa-based company said the acquisition from Australia-based Treasury Wine Estates, announced Wednesday, April 5, is part of Delicato's ongoing move to higher-priced wines - an industry trend commonly called premiumization - and growth strategy. Part of that premium shift was the strategic investment, announced last month, in Sonoma's V2 Wine Group, which has a portfolio of luxury-tier brands.

The sale of the winery, located in Paicines near Salinas, is part of a upscale shift the Napa-based Americas unit of Treasury discussed last June.

The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition does not include any brands but will be used to support the growth of Delicato's premium and ultrapremium wines from the Monterey and Central Coast regions such as Noble Vines, Gnarly Head, Z. Alexander Brown, Diora and Irony. The winery will also support two of the company's premier Central Coast vineyards in the San Bernabe and Santa Lucia Highlands winegrowing regions as well as a number of grower partners.

Acquisition of production assets to support growth, particularly for higher-end wines, is a trend in the past few years that has includes purchases of vineyards and wineries in the North Coast and beyond. For example, E. & J. Gallo Winery acquired the Asti winery near Geyserville in Sonoma County and The Ranch Winery in Napa Valley for such growth.

Blossom Hill Winery now will be called Alba Coast Winery, Delicato said. It is located in the Paicines winegrowing region in San Benito County.

"The name Alba means ‘dawn’ or ‘sunrise’ in Italian and reflects a ‘new dawn’ for the pioneering winery, which was established during early Central Coast wine and vineyard development," said Delicato President and CEO Chris Indelicato. "My grandfather started with a single winery almost 100 years ago and as we continue to grow our business and expand our luxury portfolio, taking steps to ensure quality winemaking will remain our top priority."

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