Delicato Family Wines history

1940: Sam Jasper Winery makes and sells about 15,000 gallons of wine a year and charges 95 cents a gallon.

The company bought grapes to supplement its own vineyard harvests and, by 1955, bulk wine production had reached 74,107 gallons and continued to climb in the following years.

Yet, when Gaspare Indelicato passed away in 1962, the winemaking operation was still a small, struggling family affair.

1975: The winery builds a tasting room and corporate offices at the Manteca Vineyard.

In 1983, the winery began its annual Delicato Charity Grape Stomp Festival during Labor Day weekend.

The first step came in 1987 when the company purchased 110 acres in the middle of a vast, 20-square-mile vineyard and ranch in Monterey County near King City.

Delicato was among the wineries that unknowingly bought grapes in 1988 from a broker who misrepresented them.

Two years later, in 1996, it introduced the Delicato Family Vineyards brand, an inexpensive, everyday table wine bearing a distinctive blue label.

Meanwhile, Vincent Indelicato stepped down as company president and Eric Morham, the first nonfamily executive, filled president and CEO roles in 1999.

Then, around the year 2000, they began to produce wine under a variety of brand names.

The result was released in 2001 when 5,000 cases under the Delicato Monterey Vine Select label, retailing for around $40 a bottle, were released.