It’s a lament you’ve heard — and will likely hear a lot more of – from city officials in the coming months: Delicato Family Wines isn’t making it clear what they want.
And its not because the family’s lawyer, Steve Herum, was keeping the winery’s concerns a secret in numerous public and private meetings.
Quite the opposite.
No one, though, has come right out and said is that in order for the city to address those concerns in a manner that leaves little or nothing to chance or fate.
It’s because to get what Delicato wants it will essentially include the “taking” of others’ land by government fiat via zoning outlined in the general plan land use element.
It would do so by using some type of zoning overlay on land Delicato owns adjacent of the actual winery site and a lot of it that it doesn’t own.
Yes, the area in question is now all basically agriculture with a smattering of homes.
But if everyone is honest, the viability of much of that land for farming as the years unfold will become more limited.
As such, a city decision to zone it in perpetuality for agriculture — something that was never envisioned for cities to do in the California constitution given the nature of what they are — would basically devalue land and deprive property owners of wealth.
It would be akin, as an example, if Eckert’s Cold Storage that processes bell peppers next to Manteca High got the city to impose a zoning that prevented owners of hundreds or nearby homes from ever expanding.
The rational would be reducing potential problems for Eckert’s going forward with smells, noise, and lights by complaints people are likely to make.
That said, it isn’t like Delicato hasn’t made its concerns — or intentions — clear over the years.
The winery has been in the city’s sphere of influence for years.
As such, the city should have known about the fact the winery was gearing up to undergo a $100 million expansion years ago when it was going through the exhaustive state permitting process.
Either key support staff at the city when that was happening was oblivious, didn’t care, or had no clue there was even a winery of such magnitude in an area that the general plan — the blueprint for Manteca growth — had with in its sphere of influence as a potential area for annexation.
.
The Manteca winery’s three-phase expansion doubled its capacity and will create about 15 percent more jobs.
The biggest visible impact of the expansion is a 700,000-square-foot plus building — currently the largest in the Manteca and its sphere of influence — that serves as a warehouse with several bottling lines along with a lab.
The Delicato label per se has been retired in favor of 18 basic brands with the biggest three sellers being Gnarly Head, Noble Wines, and Bota Box.
The explosive growth of Delicato Family Wines — it was the 25th largest winery just 14 years ago and is now the fifth 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 many of those in the Manteca community that are unaware they have one of the world’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.
When most people think of wineries, they think of boutique wineries. But Delicato Family and the wineries such as The Wine Group in Ripon along East Highway 120, Gallo in Modesto, and Bronco in Ceres are big businesses that provided much sought after head of household jobs in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and do so in sizeable numbers.
Jay Indelicato, who oversees the Manteca winery, noted in a 2019 interview the local operation has an average of 400 truck trips year round and operates 24/7 with accompanying noise as well as lights at night.
A few years back, Delicato secured approval through the lengthy process needed to have the Frontage Road from the Lathrop Road interchange in Manteca to the northern edge of their property designated as a STAA route. The designation allows longer trucks used in interstate commerce to use local roads in California.
Also on Frontage Road is Perry & Sons that also operate numerous trucks from their Manteca operations that is ranked as the No. 1 broker of watermelons, melons, and pumpkins in the United States.
They also crush grapes on site — something that Gallo no longer does at its Modesto winery that is somewhat isolated by the Tuolumne River, a nearby industrial area and the fact the company over the years purchased many nearby homes and uses them as rentals.
Delicato disposes of water they use on site as well as grinds up stems and skins.
And while Delicato could build a wastewater treatment plant, it is considered cost prohibitive.
What they did instead was set aside hundreds of acres — in excess of state requirements — to allow for the disposal of winery wastewater by flood irrigating almonds, vineyards and open fields. It is a legal and accepted agricultural practice, something Manteca might want to take note of given they take great pain to point out they are a “right to farm” city.
Those are important points to Indelicato as Manteca makes plans to eventually urbanize the area between the city’s current city limits just north of Lathrop Road almost all the way to French Camp Road.
Making sure development is compatible is a key point the family has tried to make at various meetings designed to shape the general plan update that serves as Manteca’s blueprint for growth.
The light, noise, truck traffic and intense agricultural operations such as crushing grapes is not something that Delicato believes would sit well with future residents if Manteca ultimately allows homes to be built in the shadows of the winery and its large tank farms that are draped with lights.
Indelicato back in 2019 pointed out that despite Manteca being a right-to-farm city he knows almond growers who have been the repeated target of complaints for kicking up dust and working at night in their orchards — two things that are part of acceptable standard farming practices under the law.
As Indelicato pointed out, you can’t just pull up a winery and relocate it.
Even if you could, you might not be able to start over in another location — at least not in California. That’s because the state Air Resources Board has slapped a moratorium on new wine tanks. And since they secured permits before the moratorium went into effect, they opted to build most of the 80 new tanks even if they aren’t needed for a few years instead of running the risk that once the permits expire they may not be able to obtain new approval from the state to build them.
They decided growing almonds wasn’t the most valuable crop for the land. Instead it is for Kiper Homes to tear out the almond trees and build 177 homes.
It’s a position that neighbors of the winery have taken but is being opposed strenuously by Delicato to such a point they have no qualms about turning the entire City of Manteca into a battleground for what is basically a neighborhood spat over land use.
That’s because all the other issues being used to get voters to sign petitions to force an election aren’t what is in play.
Kiper Homes at Indelicato — as the subdivision is dubbed — should be a reminder that the common denominator in this fight isn’t growth, but money and the right for people to protect their property interests.
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
It’s a lament you’ve heard — and will likely hear a lot more of – from city officials in the coming months: Delicato Family Wines isn’t making it clear what they want.
And its not because the family’s lawyer, Steve Herum, was keeping the winery’s concerns a secret in numerous public and private meetings.
Quite the opposite.
No one, though, has come right out and said is that in order for the city to address those concerns in a manner that leaves little or nothing to chance or fate.
It’s because to get what Delicato wants it will essentially include the “taking” of others’ land by government fiat via zoning outlined in the general plan land use element.
It would do so by using some type of zoning overlay on land Delicato owns adjacent of the actual winery site and a lot of it that it doesn’t own.
Yes, the area in question is now all basically agriculture with a smattering of homes.
But if everyone is honest, the viability of much of that land for farming as the years unfold will become more limited.
As such, a city decision to zone it in perpetuality for agriculture — something that was never envisioned for cities to do in the California constitution given the nature of what they are — would basically devalue land and deprive property owners of wealth.
It would be akin, as an example, if Eckert’s Cold Storage that processes bell peppers next to Manteca High got the city to impose a zoning that prevented owners of hundreds or nearby homes from ever expanding.
The rational would be reducing potential problems for Eckert’s going forward with smells, noise, and lights by complaints people are likely to make.
That said, it isn’t like Delicato hasn’t made its concerns — or intentions — clear over the years.
The winery has been in the city’s sphere of influence for years.
As such, the city should have known about the fact the winery was gearing up to undergo a $100 million expansion years ago when it was going through the exhaustive state permitting process.
Either key support staff at the city when that was happening was oblivious, didn’t care, or had no clue there was even a winery of such magnitude in an area that the general plan — the blueprint for Manteca growth — had with in its sphere of influence as a potential area for annexation.
.
The Manteca winery’s three-phase expansion doubled its capacity and will create about 15 percent more jobs.
The biggest visible impact of the expansion is a 700,000-square-foot plus building — currently the largest in the Manteca and its sphere of influence — that serves as a warehouse with several bottling lines along with a lab.
The Delicato label per se has been retired in favor of 18 basic brands with the biggest three sellers being Gnarly Head, Noble Wines, and Bota Box.
The explosive growth of Delicato Family Wines — it was the 25th largest winery just 14 years ago and is now the fifth 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 many of those in the Manteca community that are unaware they have one of the world’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.
When most people think of wineries, they think of boutique wineries. But Delicato Family and the wineries such as The Wine Group in Ripon along East Highway 120, Gallo in Modesto, and Bronco in Ceres are big businesses that provided much sought after head of household jobs in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and do so in sizeable numbers.
Jay Indelicato, who oversees the Manteca winery, noted in a 2019 interview the local operation has an average of 400 truck trips year round and operates 24/7 with accompanying noise as well as lights at night.
A few years back, Delicato secured approval through the lengthy process needed to have the Frontage Road from the Lathrop Road interchange in Manteca to the northern edge of their property designated as a STAA route. The designation allows longer trucks used in interstate commerce to use local roads in California.
Also on Frontage Road is Perry & Sons that also operate numerous trucks from their Manteca operations that is ranked as the No. 1 broker of watermelons, melons, and pumpkins in the United States.
They also crush grapes on site — something that Gallo no longer does at its Modesto winery that is somewhat isolated by the Tuolumne River, a nearby industrial area and the fact the company over the years purchased many nearby homes and uses them as rentals.
Delicato disposes of water they use on site as well as grinds up stems and skins.
And while Delicato could build a wastewater treatment plant, it is considered cost prohibitive.
What they did instead was set aside hundreds of acres — in excess of state requirements — to allow for the disposal of winery wastewater by flood irrigating almonds, vineyards and open fields. It is a legal and accepted agricultural practice, something Manteca might want to take note of given they take great pain to point out they are a “right to farm” city.
Those are important points to Indelicato as Manteca makes plans to eventually urbanize the area between the city’s current city limits just north of Lathrop Road almost all the way to French Camp Road.
Making sure development is compatible is a key point the family has tried to make at various meetings designed to shape the general plan update that serves as Manteca’s blueprint for growth.
The light, noise, truck traffic and intense agricultural operations such as crushing grapes is not something that Delicato believes would sit well with future residents if Manteca ultimately allows homes to be built in the shadows of the winery and its large tank farms that are draped with lights.
Indelicato back in 2019 pointed out that despite Manteca being a right-to-farm city he knows almond growers who have been the repeated target of complaints for kicking up dust and working at night in their orchards — two things that are part of acceptable standard farming practices under the law.
As Indelicato pointed out, you can’t just pull up a winery and relocate it.
Even if you could, you might not be able to start over in another location — at least not in California. That’s because the state Air Resources Board has slapped a moratorium on new wine tanks. And since they secured permits before the moratorium went into effect, they opted to build most of the 80 new tanks even if they aren’t needed for a few years instead of running the risk that once the permits expire they may not be able to obtain new approval from the state to build them.
They decided growing almonds wasn’t the most valuable crop for the land. Instead it is for Kiper Homes to tear out the almond trees and build 177 homes.
It’s a position that neighbors of the winery have taken but is being opposed strenuously by Delicato to such a point they have no qualms about turning the entire City of Manteca into a battleground for what is basically a neighborhood spat over land use.
That’s because all the other issues being used to get voters to sign petitions to force an election aren’t what is in play.
Kiper Homes at Indelicato — as the subdivision is dubbed — should be a reminder that the common denominator in this fight isn’t growth, but money and the right for people to protect their property interests.
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
