Delicato is actually Manteca (which means lard in Spanish). We stopped there on one of our trips between San Jose and Kirkwood/So Tahoe about (or at least) 5 years ago. It only adds a mile or two and about 10 minutes to our trip. We've bought a few cases as they would often have acceptable wine from previous year on sale for $40-60/case. They own a lot of brands including Gnarly Head, Z Alexander Brown (from country musician Zach Brown) and somewhat recent additions AFAIK 120 from Chile and Mercer from WA State.
Eventually they changed the pricing so members pay $10-20 less per case; i.e. $40 instead of $50 or $60 instead of $80 so I joined their wine club where you get two bottles every two months for $31.50. We've found too many Pinot Grigios in our shipments (that we pickup), but they are willing to substitute and we also gotten some good wines, gifts and attended a couple of events there. One event was a members only tasting of Black Stallion wines where you could make a mixed case for $120 and these were Napa and Sonoma wines that retailed for $35-50. They have started charging for tasting, but members are free, COVID and weather permitting as they are only went back to tasting outside, with reservations, last weekend.
On my early Jan. trip to Kirkwood and Heavenly, I left Kirkwood after 2 and easily made it to Delicato well before 5 PM. I had a couple of shipments to pickup and while I didn't find any interesting cases on sale, I found a couple of $7 bottles in the sale rack that were worth getting. These are heavily discounted because they are the last of a vintage or the label is flawed. Delicato also does Bota Box and this month members got 3L box for $14.39 plus tax. I brought home a couple of boxes of Nighthawk Black, Rich Red Blend that we'd recently bought at Safeway and enjoyed. I think it is the only box wine included in Wine Enthusiast's Top 100 Wine Buys of 2020 where they say $23/3L and "This deep colored and concentrated wine packs in ample black-fruit flavors and supports them with firm tannins. Baking spices and cedar add complexity to the core of tasty berries."
Last week, I was at Tahoe again and told my wife it looked I would try to get home in lull in storm Wed PM, but I didn't think I'd make it to Delicato. She was disappointed and when I called and said I lied she thought it meant I was not coming home after 3 powder days, but I told her I was on way home and should also be able to get there before they closed. I easily made it, although it was pouring rain before and after my stop. I bought four more boxes (one was for my Mom) and got a case of Mercer Brothers Horse 2017 Heaven Hills Cabernet for $60 ($80 non-members). I probably should have bought more as it's very good, no. 72 on Wine Enthusiasts Best Wines of 2020. I knew Mercer as we had previously bought case of 2016 Reserve Heritage Blend for $80/case, and it's excellent. Below (from left to right) is good, better, best
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