Saturday, March 7th, marked the 8th annual “Pruning and Pastries” competition held at Six Sigma Ranch. Fourteen professional Lake County pruners arrived well before start time to compete for speed and accuracy hoping to win the grand prize of $500 for first place, $250 for second, and $100 for third along with gift certificates from local sponsor, Kelseyville Lumber. Other generous sponsors included Kendall Jackson Vineyard Estates and Twin Pine Casino, who also contributed to the winner’s prizes.

The professional judges were Glenn McGourty, PhD, UC Davis and Broc Zoller, PhD, The Pear Doctor.

Six Sigma Ranch is happy to announce the following 2014 winners: Javier Garcia from JAC Ag. won first place, Alverto Garcia from JAC Ag. took second; and Isac Medina from Beckstoffer Vineyard placed third.

This event also serves as an educational opportunity for the community at large. Six Sigma winemaker Matt Hughes instructed a group of anxious “grape growers in-training” how to properly prune grapevines which led to a lively amateur pruning competition. The amateur winners were Richard Koury who received first place, Felicita Martinez who received second and Anders Salverson who took third.

A nice surprise this year was that the newly established Yuba College Culinary Program created the pastries.

“It is so great to have an esteemed culinary program in Lake County that will be able to produce high-quality foods to enhance the award-winning wines of Lake County,” said Kaj. “With the addition of this caliber of culinary talent, Lake County’s future as a world-class food and wine destination is solid”.