Golden hands and precision in the vineyard, Matteo Finezzo is Italy’s best pruner

It is a decisive moment for work in the vineyard in which precision, expertise and practicality are needed. We are talking about pruning, a centuries-old practice to which an ad hoc event has been dedicated, the “Italian Pruning Festival”, a contest conceived by Simonit & Sirch Vine Master Pruners (the pruning method signed by Marco Simonit and Pierpaolo Sirch, which started in Friuli Venezia Giulia, today is the protagonist in numerous leading wineries in Italy and around the world, ed) that, after the first edition in Franciacorta, in the vineyards of the Bellavista brand, lands in Tuscany and precisely in the vineyards of Agricola San Felice di Castelnuovo Berardenga in Chianti Classico, a leading reality of the denomination owned by the Allianz Group. Participating were the “masters” of pruning, a hundred in all, with Matteo Finezzo (Verona) being awarded as Italy’s best vine pruner ahead of Matteo Vecchia (Bologna) and Umberto Capraro (Valdobbiadene). The best team was that of the “Largoni Boys”, or Marco Cecchetto, Nikolas Marson, and Marco Gregoris of the Azienda Giorgio Cecchetto di Motta di Livenza who preceded, representing Cantine Ferrari, Giacomo Frizzera, Federico Huez and Radoslav Radosevic. Third place went to Emanuele Guolo, Michele Martinazzo and Giovanni Perin of Tenuta Castaldo di Cornuda. Judging was entrusted to a jury composed of Marco Simonit, Pierpaolo Sirch, S&S Vine Master Pruners technicians and international judges Rodrigo Soto (Quintessa, California), Anna Jorgensen (Cortes de Cima, Portugal), Matt Strugnell (Ridgeview, UK) and Philippe Kuntzmann. The Festival will return in 2025, in Ribera del Duero, Spain, expanding its boundaries with an increasingly European connotation.