Like many Pennsylvania vineyards, Va La Vineyards in Avondale is settling down after a successful year. Yet, owner and winemaker Anthony Vietri has kept the same tradition of starting harvest preparations in December, writes Paul Vigna for PennLive.

As a uniquely East Coast producer, Va La Vineyards offers dry, small-batch wines. Vietri typically produces the same four wines and sells them out of the tasting room, along with a few other locations.

Although not as hectic as other times during the year, December is when Vietri prepares new wines for raising and prunes the orchard and fig and chestnut trees.

“It is a 100-day march, on my knees, to prune the vines for spring. Specifically, we are always looking for ways to improve quality,” he said. “We keep striving to [hopefully] stay close to our roots and be more Old World in style.”

He has plans for new plantings in the vineyard, as well as continuing to keep very low toxicity by not utilizing herbicides and relying almost entirely on an organic spray system.

Read more about Va La Vineyards in PennLive.