Amid brilliant sunshine, 30 winegrowers from all over Germany had the opportunity to test their vine-pruning skills in Geisenheim recently. The focus was on quality and a well-considered cut in keeping with the pruning technique developed by Simonit&Sirch. In the first round, 16 vines were pruned by the participants before being assessed by the jury, consisting of managers and employees from the participating companies. The quality demonstrated by the contestants was equally high, so nine participants had to compete in an elimination round in order to determine the winner. In addition to quality, speed was also assessed, so this was also a deciding factor between first and second place. In the end, Ionut-Alexander Banea from Juliusspital Winery (Würzburg, Franconia) beat Joachim Scheuermann from the Bassermann-Jordan Winery (Deidesheim, Palatinate) to win the first-ever national pruning competition. Third place was particularly gratifying for Dirk Rehling from Weingut Sohns winery in Geisenheim. The former student of Hochschule Geisenheim University attended the vine-pruning school organised by the GIW and Simonit&Sirch and impressively put into practice what he learnt only three weeks previously.

The event was rounded off by information on all of Felco products, free maintenance of one's own pruning equipment and a lavish buffet.

A thrilling competition ended with the presentation of the prizes. The winner will go on to participate in the world championships in Switzerland next spring; all of the participants were rewarded with gifts from Felco.  

Report by Mathias Scheidweiler.