August, 2006

We are seeing some incredible temperatures these days. With the heavy rain earlier in the year, conditions are ideal--we are witnessing wonderful growth of fruit right now. We expect another great great harvest in '06. On Aug 25th we will be bottling our '04 and this promises to be a great, great wine. We expect to bottle about 200 cases.

This will be the result of our new Vineyard manager, Hector Lopez, who left Caymus after 16 years and brought his skill to Bialla Vineyards. Our wine maker Craig MacLean and Hector are a dream team to be working together. We are very fortunate.

Speaking of Craig, he has just agreed to become General Manager of Napa L'atitude, which is a newly aquired facility on Highway 29 in the heart of Napa Valley. It was known as the Koves-Newlan winery and is going through a complete renovation.

What this means to us is that our wine will be made and watched on Craig's premises. NL is being transformed into a 30k case winery complete with tasting room, country style picnic facilities, and some residences custom built for rental and special events.

The whole operation is spectacular and Craig and his partner have handpicked a few premium wineries they want to feature, showcase and represent at this facility. Don't worry, we will have enough for our family customers and mailing list. The exposure, however, and ability to serve our wine daily will be lots of fun and a nice step for us. The full retail and tasting room operation will be up and running around November.

The Bounty Hunter has done a fabulous job of representing us, and Acme Wines in St Helena has sought us out and become another evangelist for our wine. Speaking of evangelists we added a place on our website where one can add comments about our wine. If you have a comment please send it to Vito - we'll be sure to include it.

Earlier this year we were invited to pour at the Tiburon Wine festival. I have to say this is one of the greatest and happiest moments I've ever had in this business. The caliber of the people attending was simply fabulous which made it so much fun. The response to our wines was overwhelming. My head got so big I felt like Robert Mondavi. Be sure to make it next year--they sell out and it is a real treat so get tickets early: www.tiburonwinefestival.com .

Our newly planted vines are now a couple years old and are doing extraordinarily well. We will harvest a couple tons this year and we will make a special blend out of this--most likely 90% cab 10% Merlot. This will have a Ben or Linda above the Bialla on the label, differentiating it from the powerful 100% cab which is our flagship brand. The label debate is still ongoing but I'll keep you posted on the conclusion.

Last year we may have released our wine a little early because the '03 gets better which each month. But as our winemaker said, "I've never done this and I've never witnessed such an early release but it is so damn good now why deprive us all. I'm fine with this." I hope I'll be doing the same this fall and we all have wine for the holidays. (Vito is still trying to learn patience.)

Thank you for sharing our venture with us--it means so much to us.

--Vito and Linda Bialla
Bialla Vineyards