This wooden box was used by Aldo Biale and his family for harvesting grapes on their Napa Valley ranch. The ends are painted white and stenciled with “ALDO BIALE, NAPA, CALIF.” Although plastic picking pans have replaced wooden boxes, the Biale family retained some of their old wooden boxes to use on special occasions and as reminders of the past.
The Biale family arrived in the Napa Valley in 1937, when Pietro and Christina Biale, immigrants from northern Italy, established a farm near the town of Napa. They raised a few chickens and grew Zinfandel and Petite Sirah grapes along with a variety of vegetables, fruits, walnuts, and prunes. Their son Aldo grew up on the farm and learned the ways of the vineyard. Like other grape growers in Napa at the time, the Biales sold most of their crop to other wine producers, but kept enough of the harvest to make their own wine at home, in the Italian tradition. Aldo Biale passed away in 2009 and his wife, sons, and their business partners continue to the family grape growing and winemaking enterprises.
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