Regional pruning winners to face off in Sonoma County championship

Sonoma County’s tenth annual vineyard pruning championship will take place today at 10 a.m. with four local pruners competing for the grand prize – including cash. The top four winners from the Sonoma Valley competition were:
First place – Manuel Chavez – Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards
Second place – Adam Paz – Carneros Vineyard Management
Third place – Servando Rojas – Enrique’s Vineyard Management
Fourth place – Alberto Avina – Foster’s Wine Estates Americas
The competition will be held at Santa Rosa Junior College Shone Farm at the new Warren Dutton Jr. Agriculture Pavilion, located at 6225 Eastside Road in Forestville.
In all, ten vineyard professional finalists representing the five major Sonoma County wine grape regions will compete. The ten professional vineyard pruners will work on five vines each. They will be judged for speed and quality of work. Following the championship round, there will be a celebrity winemaker and vineyard manager pruning contest as well.
Awards will be presented, including cash prizes for the winners, followed by a complimentary barbecue lunch with a mariachi band. Wine tasting will be available with proceeds going to the development program that provides viticulture training in Spanish for vineyard employees.
“The purpose of these contests is to recognize the skills of vineyard employees doing this important task and to high light pruning as the critical first step in the 2009 vintage,” said Nick Frey, Sonoma County Winegrape Commission president.
The contest, hosted by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, is open to the public at no charge.