15-16 March 2024, Chianti Classico conceived and organised by Simonit&Sirch
The 2nd Grape Pruning Festival will be held on 15 and 16 March 2024 in Castelnuovo Berardenga (SI). It will be a great day of celebration among the vines, open to all those who love nature and country life. In addition to the hard-fought and exciting vine pruning competition that will award the best pruners in Italy, there will be many unusual events that will allow everyone, young and old, to spend a pleasant day in the open air. In addition, the day before the Festival it will be possible to attend an international technical conference on one of the most important issues for tomorrow’s vineyards: water.
After the great success of the first edition, held on 9 March 2019 in Franciacorta, it will be Chianti Classico to host the event, conceived and organised by Simonit&Sirch. The pruning competition will take place in the vineyards of San Felice, a leading company in the area and partner of the Festival, which has been applying the Simonit&Sirch pruning method for years and hosts the Simonit&Sirch Academy Pruning School.
The competition is open to all those who wish to show their skills in a competition that will reward precision of cuts and speed. 105 pruners will participate, competing in individual (60) and team (15 teams of 3 members) competitions. Speaker of the competition will be Francesco Quarna of Radio Deejay. The public will be able to closely observe the competitors intent on pruning plants. The jury, made up of Simonit&Sirch technicians and international pruning experts, will award the best performers in the two categories.
Sign up to participate
Only the use of manual scissors according to the instructions given in the pre-race brief by the jury is permitted. The final ranking is based on precision and cutting technique according to the Simonit&Sirch Pruning method.
Message from the winner of the previous edition
“Marco I wanted to personally thank you for Saturday, it was an incredible experience, I grew up with my grandparents among the vineyards of Franciacorta and I always wanted to do this job. Winning on Saturday was like realising a dream.
I showed the photos to my 80-year-old grandfather and he burst into tears proud of me like a child. Thank you very much, you have brought me immense joy and great personal satisfaction”.
With high appreciation, Marco Bergoli
Marco Bergoli
1st Classified Single Competition
1st Ed. Pruning Festival – Franciacorta
Party and sides events
The Pruning Contest will be at the heart of a day of celebration in the countryside dedicated to ‘savoir faire in the vineyard’ .
The festival is open to everyone, with free admission: pruners, families, friends and enthusiasts. The day will start for competitors at 8.00 a.m. with the blessing of the pruners by the parish priest of Castelnuovo Berardenga, which will be followed by the Pruning Breakfast, organised by the Diversamente Eroici association.
The competitions will begin at 10 a.m., when all the side activities will also start. The competitions will be surrounded by music, themed stands, and a series of activities related to the farming world, including workshops with craftsmen intent on their traditional trades and the Atelier of FELCO scissors, the world’s leading company in the sector, which offers a complete and unique maintenance service for your manual scissors.
Main sponsor of the event will be FINE+RARE, from London, which has been a leader in the purchase, sale and management of private wine cellars since 1994, giving the global audience of collectors access to the finest products.
The Festival enjoys the patronage of the Chianti Classico Consortium, the Municipality of Castelnuovo Berardenga and the ASA Italian Agribusiness Press Association.
Timetable
8.00 blessing to pruners
8.15 Pruner’s Breakfast
8.30 Accreditation in the Pruning Contest
9.00 Opening of sponsor stands
9.00 Pruner’s walk from San Felice to Brolio Castle
9.00 Pruning Contest Race-Briefing
10.00 Pruning Contest – individual competition (qualifications)
10.00 Opening of collateral activities
10.30 Woodcutters’ Exhibition
11.00 Lorenzo Guslandi show
11.30 Pruning Contest – team competition
12.30 Woodcutters’ Exhibition
13.00 Da Move – Show Freestyle Sport-Mix
13.30 Tastings of the Consorzio Chianti Classico
14.15 Pruning Contest – gara singola (finale)
14.45 Lorenzo Guslandi show
15.00 Demonstration of vine-surgery
15.15 Woodcutters’ Exhibition
15.45 Premiazioni
16.00 Readings and musical tasting with Omar Pedrini
17.00 Festival closing
A organizzare il Festival del Potatore della vite sono Simonit&Sirch (che lo hanno ideato, primi e unici in Italia, nel 2019), che hanno messo a punto un metodo di potatura che rende le viti più forti e longeve, e lo hanno esportato con successo in tutto il mondo. La potatura delle viti è infatti uno dei compiti più difficili e delicati del vignaiolo: da essa può dipendere la salute, la robustezza e la durata delle piante e di conseguenza la produzione e la qualità dei vini.
“The Municipality of Castelnuovo Berardenga,” says the mayor, Fabrizio Nepi, ” is very proud to host the second edition of the Vine Pruner’s Festival, which comes to Tuscany for the first time, and I would like to thank Simonit&Sirch for choosing the Castelnuovo Berardenga region. This event focuses on viticulture, which is one of our main resources and excellences, as well as fundamental for the economic development of the area, and invests in quality techniques and attention to the environment and landscape. With these assumptions, we could not but welcome an event that will be a further opportunity to publicise and promote Castelnuovo Berardenga and Chianti, turning the spotlight on elements that make our territory unique and famous throughout the world”.
“We chose Chianti because the Festival is an itinerant event, which takes place every year in one of the great Italian wine regions, and Tuscany could only be among the first to host it,” Simonit&Sirch adds. “With this event, we intend to reaffirm the centrality of man and know-how in the vineyard for fine wine-growing. The longevity and healthiness of the vines, a necessary prerequisite for great and distinctive wines, pass through the hands and experience of man. We therefore compare, in a positively competitive and sporting context, the pruners on whose work (sustainable and environmentally friendly) the healthiness and productive and qualitative performance of the vines largely depend. For them, and for us who train them, the Festival is a pleasant, vital and enjoyable moment of encounter and growth.”
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