Our "Green Friendly" Vineyards
To preserve Amador County's heritage of "Old Vine" Zinfandel, Renwood has selected clones from Amador's most unique head-pruned, dry-farmed old vine Zinfandel vineyards. We have heat-treated and bench grafted these cuttings onto resistant rootstock. The best sites in the Shenandoah Valley (Amador County) have been selected to plant these first growth vines.
Each of our vineyard sites was carefully selected because of the soil, elevation, and sun exposure. We were the first in Amador county to plow to the depths of four feet in our vineyards. The thousands of tons of rocks were used to line drainage ditches as part of our state-of-the-art erosion control. Silt is collected in basins at the end of each drainage ditch, preventing erosion from entering any streams. We are proud of this technology, which has set new standards for future vineyards.
Small block irrigation has been installed to give us the opportunity to selectively water our young vines. We have developed a new trellising system that allows us to prevent sunburn on our fruit, a classic problem in the Sierra Foothills. Our three-wire system, with 8x6 spacing, produces quality grapes for our Renwood wines. Renwood Properties' philosophy is to "merge the best of the Old and New World viticulture practices, to preserve our heritage and protect the environment”.
Grandpère® Vineyard
Our estate vineyard, located on the hill behind the winery. The 20.65 acre vineyard is predominantly planted with the Grandpère® clone of Zinfandel. The vineyard has four blocks of head trained Grandpère® Zinfandel vines and two blocks of trellised Grandpère® Zinfandel clone vines. Approximately three acres are planted with Petite Sirah, Mourvedre, and Alicante, which can be found in some of our Grandpère® Zifnandel blends. Another four acres are planted with Barbera and bottled under our estate label.
