From the Fields - Jim Spinetta

By Jim Spinetta, Amador County winegrape grower

On average in Shenandoah Valley, we get about 32 inches of rain. This year so far, we’ve had 52 inches, so the fields are too wet to get into. We are trying to keep our tractors out of the field so we don’t get them stuck.

We’re about halfway through pruning. Some people up here haven’t started. The only thing we can do is get the crews out in between the rain to do some of the pruning and tying of vines. The good thing is the buds are holding tight with the cold temperatures. But there’s so many days from bud break to harvest, so it’s going to be a late harvest. We’re leaving the grass taller, so it can soak up the excessive water through evapotranspiration. We’re leaving more buds on the vine, so there’s more canopy that can suck up the excessive moisture on the vines.

This is a very good year—a very rare year—to do replants on the vines. Up in the Sierra foothills, we don’t have a lot of water, and this is a year where we have the water from Mother Nature, so we can do replants to start some baby plants growing.

It’s going to be really difficult for the few people that have stone fruits because the flowers are getting water on them. On our ranch, we have over a hundred different types of fruits, nuts and vegetables, a lot for personal use. Last year, we only had two bags of persimmons, but we didn’t have the apples, pears, peaches, nectarines or apricots. We’re very concerned for the people that grow those types of fruits in our area.

What we’re really hoping for this year—for the foothills and the valley—is that we’re able to retain some of the water. We hope that people in the foothills put in collection basins, such as through incentive grants, whether through the U.S. Department of Agriculture or other agencies, to capture the water. We can recharge the water up high and help the mountain aquifers, and eventually that water will work down to the valley.