Spinelli: One-stop-shopping important to Anthony Vineyards customer roster
Spinelli: One-stop-shopping important to Anthony Vineyards customer roster
Anthony Vineyards continues to provide its customers with the kind of one-stop-shop experience that allows them to buy the best conventional and organic table grapes with maximum confidence and minimum fuss.
“We try to keep a balance,” said Salesman Rob Spinelli. “We want to offer customers the ability for one-stop shopping for conventional and organic.”
An extensive manifest of green seedless, red seedless, black seedless and red seeded grapes are grown and marketed. Vines are pampered, with young vines generally trained to the trellis branch by branch. At five years, the harvest of quality table grapes begins.
“The carpets of barley separating the rows of vines contribute nutrients to the soil and moderate extremes in temperature,” the company’s website states. “They also provide a home for ladybug beetles, who feed on aphids and other pests. Water for the vines and barley is delivered by an irrigation system which monitors moisture literally.”
According to Spinelli, the company’s conventional acreage has increased 10 percent, and organic acreage has grown at a rate of approximately 30 percent during the last two to three years.
“Fall grape volumes continue to grow with all proven varieties,” he went on to say. “We’re always looking to fill in our gaps to give us more ability” to meet customer demands.
The company’s plan is to market grapes from May through December for all colors. In addition to its domestic sales, Anthony Vineyards markets grapes to destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, China and the United Arab Emirates.
With the ongoing California drought and associated watering restrictions, Spinelli said water management will be key in making sure that production will be impacted to the minimum possible. “Redrilling is expensive and time consuming,” he commented. Because growers are unsure just how much groundwater actually is available, Spinelli said growers must make important decisions.
“There’s an issue of do we preserve the vine or grow fruit?” he observed.
Anthony Vineyards has open land that has been furrowed to allow water to be diverted to other production acreage. Spinelli said older vineyards can also be “pulled out” to redirect water to other land.
