The Diablo Grande Vineyards consist of approximately 36 acres of winegrapes sculpted into the rolling hillsides of the Diablo Range on the western slope of California’s San Joaquin Valley. These vineyards are located adjacent to Diablo Grande’s Ranch and Legends West Golf Courses at approximately 1,100-foot elevation. These vineyards include between 2 and 5 acres each of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Barbera, Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon plus about 1 to 2 acres each of Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, Petite Syrah, Malbec, Viognier and Riesling.

Because of Diablo Grande’s specific combination of climate, soil, topography, and other vegetation, our grapes and resulting wines have flavors and characteristics which distinguish them from those produced in the Central Valley and other winegrowing regions of California. In June 1998, Diablo Grande was approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms as California’s 78th and the country’s 101st American Viticultural Area. This approval certifies Diablo Grande as a separate and unique grape-growing region and allows us to offer “Estate Bottled” wines from this singular and distinctive area.

Since 1997, Diablo Grande Wines have been produced and bottled by Isom Ranch Winery. Isom Ranch is a private enterprise located within the Diablo Grande Viticultural Area. Between 1993 and 1997 small quantities of varietal wines were made from Diablo Grande’s 11/2 acre test vineyard. 1998 marked the first year of commercial wine production for Diablo Grande Vineyards and Isom Ranch Winery. The 98 vintage yielded about 1,600 cases split among seven different varieties. These wines were first released to the public in May of 2000. The production level for the 2003 vintage will jump to approximately 7,000 cases and is expected to reach 11-12,000 cases per year in the next 2 to 3 years.

Our Isom Ranch Winery is located further into the Diablo foothills about 8 miles from the Diablo Grande’s Phase I Village and about 800 feet higher in elevation at 1,900 feet. As the crow flies this site is only about 20 miles from San Jose and the hub of California’s “Silicon Valley.” However, there are no public access roads to Isom Ranch from the west.

Our Isom Ranch site includes approximately 20 additional acres of winegrape vineyards as well as small orchards of fruit, nut, and olive trees. The Isom Ranch Winery is a 5,500 square foot building which is heavily insulated and air-conditioned to protect our wines from Central California’s heat and sunshine. The winery has state-of-the-art European-made equipment for destemming/crushing and pressing of grapes and wine. We also have a new technology rotary fermenter to improve the extraction of color and flavor and accelerate the fermentation process for red wine production.

Our conventional equipment includes six 2,000 gallon fermenting/storage tanks as well as 20 smaller stainless steel tanks and drums which are used for fermentation, storage, cold stabilizing, blending, etc. At the present time we have over 400— 60 gallon oak barrels (about half French and half American oak) which are used for aging of red wines and barrel fermenting of selected white wines. In addition, we have an in-house, 120 case per hour bottling line including filler, corker, labeler and capsule spinner. This state of the art equipment and in-house capability permits us to control all phases of our production process and allows the gradual and closely monitored development of the wine to dictate the production schedule.

Diablo Grande's first exposure to commercial wine competition began in 2000 by winning 3 medals and 2 best of class awards with the '98 vintage. Each subsequent year and vintage has been more successful with a total of 50 medals between 2000 and 2003. A summary of these competition results is shown below. These preliminary results support a statement originally submitted to BATF as part of our application for approval as a separate American Viticulture Area in 1996: "The wines from Diablo Grande grapes exhibit varietal expressions which allow them to compete with premium wines from anywhere else in the world, while offering a combination of characteristics and complexities which perhaps cannot be matched in any other growing region.

Diablo Grande's innovative and exciting combination of golf resort, residential living, vineyards and wineries coupled with the early successes of Diablo Grande wine in competitions and in outstanding consumer reception present a bright outlook for the wines of the Diablo Grande appellation.