David Natali, winemaker at Robert Biale Winery in Napa Valley, CA., brings a deep mix of hands-on experience and global perspective to Robert Biale Vineyards. A New York native and Georgetown grad, he caught the wine bug while bottling at a friend’s tiny winery. That spark led him from the cellar at Clos Pegase in Calistoga to a master’s degree in Viticulture and Enology from the University of Montpellier in France, with stops in Italy along the way.
David returned to California to focus on small-lot wines before joining Robert Biale Vineyards in 2018. He became Head Winemaker in 2022, where he now crafts expressive wines from some of Napa and Sonoma’s most historic vineyard sites.
At home in Napa with his wife and two kids, David spends his off-hours cooking and digging in the garden—still hands-on, just with a different kind of dirt. Media Inquiries: David Natali DNatali@biale.com | https://www.biale.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
History and authenticity. In a region that has changed dramatically since the days of the Judgement of Paris, the Biale family remains part of a smaller and smaller group of growers and vintners who have called Napa Valley home for generations.
Pietro and Cristina Biale immigrated from Northern Italy to California in the 1920s eventually settling in Napa on a Mt.Veeder ranch where they welcomed their only child, Aldo, in 1929. In 1937 the family purchased a ranch just north of the town of Napa (now in the city limits), where they farmed vegetables, prunes, and walnuts, raised chickens, and planted Zinfandel vines.
Tragically, Pietro passed away in a quarry explosion in 1942, leaving Cristina and 13-year-old Aldo to figure out how to hold onto the ranch. Resourceful even at that young age, Aldo came up with a plan. Instead of selling Zinfandel grapes to the local co-op for $25 a ton, he would make and sell his own wine – Zinfandel – for $1 a gallon – a nearly sixfold increase in income. But how would he do it—and to whom?
Though Prohibition had ended, the government likely wouldn’t look kindly on a teenager selling wine so Aldo got creative. He took orders over the phone – the same line they used for egg and produce orders. It was, however, a party line shared by the entire neighborhood, where anyone could (and did) eavesdrop. What he needed was a code word to keep nosy neighbors and authorities from catching on. That code word was Gallina Nera – Black Chicken – and just like that, a legend was born.
For years, Aldo Biale quietly continued his Zinfandel operation. Then, in 1991, Aldo, his son Robert, and partners Dave Pramuk and Al Perry founded Robert Biale Vineyards. Focused on Napa Valley’s historic varieties, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, we still (legally) produce Black Chicken Zinfandel, along with an array of single-vineyard bottlings from historic sites in Napa and Sonoma counties. Currently, ten of those vineyards are 100 years old or older, including hallowed sites like Monte Rosso, Bedrock, and Pagani Ranch.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
Develop and launch a well-funded national ad campaign that shares the legacy of historic vineyards—both in California and around the world.
We’re proud to participate in outstanding organizations like the Historic Vineyard Society and Zinfandel Advocates and Producers here in California, as well as the Old Vine Registry out of the UK. These groups have been doing important work raising awareness of historic vineyards and a campaign of greater magnitude would help take that message even further.
The wine world today is largely centered on international varieties like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir. These are all exceptional grapes in their own right, but they’re grown virtually everywhere – often at the expense of local varieties.
Old vine vineyards, on the other hand – many of which in California are planted to Zinfandel – are rare treasures. They exist only in scattered corners of the world and offer wine lovers a broader, more diverse view of what the wine world has to offer.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Black Chicken Zinfandel of course! Once people hear the story of the Biale family, the bootleg operation, and our perseverance with the variety, it sticks with them. It opens a lot of people up to our style of Zinfandel and dispels a lot of preconceived notions they may have about the variety. We build that wine to be balanced, respectful of place, yet layered with the generosity of fruit Zinfandel is known for. We fell in love with this legacy story and this wine from the Oak Knoll District in Napa Valley.
Bonus Question: Why Winemaking?
It truly is the balancing act of farming, science, and art that drew me in. Having a tangible product to share after months of work is also a hugely rewarding. On the more romantic-side, I only learned a few years ago from my father that he recalls checking on his grandfather’s small, home winemaking vineyard in Italy. Perhaps the occupation really does skip a generation or two.