Central Valley winemaker set to expand

MANTECA
July 17, 2012 8:30am

One of the largest independent winemakers in the Central Valley wants to get bigger and is asking the San Joaquin County Planning Commission for its approval of the expansion plans.

Delicato Vineyards’ request is on the commission’s consent calendar for its Thursday meeting, indicating that approval could be expected.

Plans call for expanding the existing crushing operations at the company’s Manteca site from 140,000 tons of grapes to 200,000 tons of grapes. Expansion would come in three phases over a five year period.

The first phase includes construction of a new refrigeration station, tank farms, fermenting tanks, remodeling an existing warehouse for a new barrel storage area, and upgrading a waste water system of processed waste water for vineyard irrigation.

The second phase includes construction of four new refrigeration plants, relocating the existing receiving and crushing area, constructing a new 24,936 square foot maintenance shop building, a 50,000 gallon water tank, a 6,000 square foot cellar processing building, tank farms, and fermenting tanks.

The final phase involves construction of a new 16,428 square foot employee lounge building, the conversion of an existing warehouse bottling area into an employee office area and receiving and ingredient warehouse, tank farms, and fermenting tanks.