Perfecting the old California classics, Robert Biale Vineyards has become a revered standard of heritage vineyard Zinfandel and Petite Sirah in Napa Valley. From the wineries’ inception, the Biale Founders have cherished the tradition of historic old vines (some dating to the 1880s!) and prize the small quantity of concentrated and intense fruit that they produce. Diligent farming, expressive terroir, and superb elegance are the winery’s hallmarks. Among the winery’s portfolio of 20 wines that Winemaker Tres Goetting crafts, Black Chicken Zinfandel is the flagship–and has become a benchmark for the varietal.

It all started in the 1940s when 14-year-old Aldo Biale helped his mother make ends meet by selling to insider Napans–along with eggs and produce–some of the family’s homemade Zinfandel. Over the old “party line” phone system, the code words “a Black Chicken” signified a jug of bootleg wine…and kept nosy neighbors and the authorities from finding out about Aldo’s underground Zinfandel operation!