For Further Information:

Scheid Vineyards Inc. (Nasdaq: SVIN)

305 Hilltown Road

Salinas, CA 93908

831-455-9990

Contact:

Scott Scheid Nevena Orbach

President & CEO OR The Orbach Co., Inc.

Scheid Vineyards 818-904-0500

831-455-9990

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MOTHER NATURE GOES INTERACTIVE ON SCHEID WEBSITE

· VitWatch gives winemakers real time remote access to vineyard

· VitWatch to be Unveiled at 53^rd Annual Enology and Viticulture Meeting in Portland June 26-28

Salinas, California, June 21, 2002--- In a first for the winemaking industry, Scheid Vineyards (Nasdaq: SVIN) has announced the launch of VitWatch, a state-of-the-art information system that provides Scheid’s winery customers with real-time web access to the grapes they have contracted. VitWatch will be unveiled at the 53^rd annual meeting of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) scheduled for June 26-28, 2002 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

Scheid Vineyards has been farming wine grapes in Monterey County since 1972 and operates approximately 6,000 acres of premium wine grape vineyards. Scheid services an array of winery clients along the coast of California with 13 distinct vineyard properties, which extend from Soledad southward to Hames Valley. Typically, a winery client will contract with Scheid for a specified area of vineyard acreage, called a vineyard ‘block’. This block (or blocks) is then custom-farmed by Scheid to meet the particular winemaking goals of each client.

The proprietary VitWatch program was created by Scheid Vineyards to allow winery clients access to real-time information on their specific blocks. Many of Scheid’s clients are in the Napa and Sonoma regions and it is difficult and time-consuming for them to frequently visit the vineyards from which they buy grapes. VitWatch is a way to virtually bring the vineyard to the winery. It is a password-protected vehicle that provides confidential information to contracting wineries, such as current weather data, satellite and radar weather images, historical weather trends, soil moisture levels, vine water stress, irrigation profiles, vineyard block maps, degree day summations, and many other farming and decision-making tools that can be used to enhance crop quality.

One of the popular components of VitWatch is a web camera, dubbed by Scheid as the “VitCam”. VitWatch users can control the VitCam to scan the vineyard and zoom in on individual vines to visually inspect the progress of the vines throughout the growing season. Currently, the practical application of the VitCam is limited by the fact that it is a stationery unit. Scheid is working on a mobile VitCam, however, which has unlimited possibilities. Eventually, winery clients will be able to log on at the time their particular blocks of fruit are being pruned, thinned or harvested and see exactly how the work is being performed.

Scott D. Scheid, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scheid Vineyards, commented, “Our goal is to be able to call specific clients and let them know when important events are taking place on their contracted blocks, such as shoot thinning. They can then log on to VitWatch to observe such activities being performed in real-time. Seeing how the shoots are thinned and positioned is a quality issue and is extremely important to winemakers. It’s difficult for them to be hundreds of miles from their grapes. With VitWatch and the VitCam, it is truly the next best thing to actually being there.”

“Farming is becoming increasingly sophisticated and VitWatch is an innovative way of applying technology to make better decisions in the vineyard. It represents a significant investment of intellectual capital from Scheid Vineyards,” adds Scheid, who, along with members of his team, spent several years developing the program.

Kurt Gollnick, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Scheid Vineyards, commented, “Growers have traditionally taken the role of trying to keep the winemaker out of the vineyard. We’re taking the opposite approach and actually encouraging our clients to know everything that is going on in their blocks of fruit, warts and all. Both winemakers and consumers benefit. There is great competition among winemakers to create ever better and more interesting wine that will win the hearts and palates of consumers. VitWatch is an extension of our hands-on approach and allows winemakers access to vineyard information 24 hours a day, so they can have a greater say in the farming practices being employed on their fruit.”

Scheid Vineyards’ exhibition at the ASEV annual meeting is a first for a grower. “To the best of our knowledge”, said Tony Stephen, Director of Wine Grape Marketing and Sales for Scheid Vineyards, “this will be the first time a grower has exhibited at a booth at the ASEV meeting. We’re looking forward to demonstrating VitWatch on June 26 and 27 to a new audience of potential customers. Some of our best ideas have come from the feedback we get from our winery clients. They are the ultimate users and we’ve built VitWatch to be a useful and unique tool for them.”

“The potential for an information-providing tool such as VitWatch is enormous,” continued Stephen. “We believe it is an excellent tool to bring our vineyard team and winery client together to realize the common goal of producing outstanding wines. Several wineries have asked us if we can create a VitWatch for their winery-owned vineyards.”

So will VitWatch be expanded to a market beyond winery clients with which Scheid does business? “Right now, our focus is on servicing the winery clients of Scheid Vineyards,” said Scheid. “We are continually working on enhancements to VitWatch, much of it based on feedback we receive from our clients, to make VitWatch more useful and powerful. There may come a point in time when we offer VitWatch to a larger audience, but for now, it is proprietary and for the use of our clients only.”

Salinas, California-based Scheid Vineyards Inc. (www.scheidvineyards.com; www.vitwatch.com) is a leading independent producer of premium wine grapes that operates approximately 6,000 acres of vineyards, primarily in Monterey County, California. The Company sells most of its grape production under short and long-term contracts to wineries producing high quality table wines, and the Company also produces a small amount of ultra premium wine under its own label.