Shenandoah Valley of CaliforniaCharles Spinetta Winery and Wildlife Art Gallery
If you are a broker, principal, or fellow professional winemaker interested in purchasing quantities of premium wine, click here.Our sister site for brokers, principals, and fellow professional winemakers to buy our family's winegrapes.Business Hours and Map to the Winery. Also look at the "Intersections Guide" so you don't get lost.An online tour of the vineyards, winemaking facilities, tasting room and art gallery, precipitation history, industry links.The wildlife art gallery, wine label collection, original paintings for sale, and more art for sale.Laura's custom framing shop will frame your family heirlooms - make an appointment soon.Current releases of dry reds and "fun and yummy" sweet wines.Current news, our flyer, recipes, and dozens of illustrated stories about winemaking and field work. Good reading!Order form for shipping - you must be 21 years of age.
_____Pruning prior to bud break is essential. Some vines benefit from pruning in early spring (before it's warm), so we postpone this task as long as possible. Vines on your patio or at lower elevations (<1700') may be fully leafed out due to the warmth of your house while ours are still dormant. All grapevines need to be pruned every year, and our pruning techniques provide a good guideline when caring for your own vines.

_____After pruning, the buds "break" -- the canes and leaves start to grow -- and the blossoms form later. A late freeze could always damage the delicately forming greenery, and a hailstorm during blossom could devastate our crop. Good farmers sleep well at night because they don't worry about situations they can't control.
Geraldo Pruning a Barbera Vine! LEFT: Geraldo prunes an eight year old barbera vine near our winery.

RIGHT: Canes must be moved to the center of the aisle so the flail (mower) can pulverize them. Intact canes create a host for critters and disease while making the vineyard look shabby. We mow immediately upon completion of pruning.		 Pick up sticks, lay them straight!
Cleaning up! LEFT: Skillful pruning removes all dead wood. No canes sprouted from this arm. This vine died back several inches and developed strangely due to freezing winds two seasons ago. New growth asserts itself later, and the vine recovers.

RIGHT: We prune back every cane and leave just two buds. The basal bud can be considered a component of the "trunk" and "doesn't count."		 The cane and its buds
Mowing Coming & Going LEFT: Mowing exposes the vines to sunlight, removes pest habitat, and decreases competition for soil moisture. Driving, working, and walking require less effort in a mowed vineyard as compared to a disked vineyard. Mowing Coming & Going
RIGHT: Our flail obliterates the canes and grass. (We must remove rocks from the rows or else our mower will be obliterated!) The resultant mulch enriches the soil and protects against erosion. We mow four or five times per season. View a story from 2009 to see what's changed.
Amador County
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Charles Spinetta Winery, Spinetta Family Vineyards, Zinetta, and the CSW Logo are registered trademarks of Charles J. Spinetta. Unless otherwise specified, all images and copy contained within the charlesspinettawinery.com domain are Copyright 1984-2018 Charles J. Spinetta. All rights reserved. Charles Spinetta Winery and Wildlife Art Gallery 12557 Steiner Road, Plymouth, California 95669, USA, telephone: (209) 245-3384, facsimile: (209) 245-3386