Grand American Rolex

TORRANCE, Calif. (August 18, 2008) - As he closes in on an American record eighth sports car championship, racing titles aren't the only thing Lexus driver Scott Pruett is preparing to harvest.
In addition to his pursuit of the Rolex Sports Car Series title, Pruett also is on the verge of his first full grape harvest at his Pruett Vineyard in Auburn, Calif. The yield will be a culmination of a journey that ultimately began as a child growing up in nearby Roseville, Calif.

"I actually had grown up with a farming background - both my parents and my grandparents grew up on farms growing wheat, rice, oats," said the fourth-generation northern California native. "Then in the early 1990s, I started to really enjoy wine, starting with whites to more reds and then predominantly reds. In the mid-to-late 90s, we started looking at buying an established winery in Oregon - basically, combining one of my new loves - wine - with my agricultural background."

His initial pursuits in Oregon never came to fruition during a busy period in his racing career when he made the move from Indy cars to NASCAR, but after the NASCAR program didn't work out, Pruett once again began pursuing his dream of owning a vineyard.

"We were looking at property in Oregon, where they produce a lot of the Oregon Pinot Noir," relayed Pruett. "We ended up purchasing 200 acres right in the middle of the Oregon wine country and we had all the soil and climate research done and were deciding what stock we were going to use, etc. Fortunately or unfortunately, there's a reason the Pinot Noir grows real well there, because it's overcast and very mild most of the time - and then we figured out, we just didn't want to live there. The weather was just too inconsistent."

Fortunately, the Pruett family had already purchased 50 acres outside of Sacramento with the intent of designing and building a home in northern California, not knowing or thinking of ever planting on it.

"I had been working with a long-time friend and former Indy car driver Randy Lewis (of Lewis Cellars fame)," said Pruett, who had raced against Lewis earlier in this career. "He introduced me to his vineyard consultant Tom Prentiss. Tom was the guy I looked to conduct all of the climate and soil research and he ultimately gave me two thumbs up that this could absolutely produce something spectacular."

In 2002, Pruett made the decision that based on his fractured rock, red clay hillside vineyard soil that Syrah would work well there. From that point, Pruett went back to his agricultural roots, buying a tractor and clearing the land largely by himself in 2003 and 2004. After clearing the property, he ripped it and cross-ripped it and readied himself for planting. At the end of 2005, he ordered the plants and then began putting in his irrigation system. At this point, he encountered something brand new to him.

"The thing that was shocking to me is that my industry, racing, has always been week-to-week and month-to-month. But to get into something where you can't even see your rewards for five to six years goes against everything I've known in my life. So with that, we ordered the plants, continued to get the field ready and waited."

With the aid of Lewis and Prentiss, Pruett planted in the spring of 2007.

"We gave them plenty of water and they grew like crazy," said Pruett. "Now, we're embarking on harvest on Wednesday (Aug. 20). They'll cold soak for seven days. At that point, I'll inoculate it and start the fermenting process. The actual fermentation should take a week to 10 days, as well. Hopefully, we'll have it in barrel 2-3 weeks after it's harvested."

Pruett already has had some experience in the area of wine-making. With grapes provided by a neighbor, Pruett began making his first wine in 2007. With advice and assistance along the way from Lewis, Pruett bottled his first Grenache earlier this year. His Syrah is currently in barrel and he's hoping to have it available by March 2009.

While this year's harvest may appear to be the culmination for the Pruett Vineyards, it's actually just the first step.

"The plan is, once we start establishing a reasonable crop, which should be next year, I'll be selling the grapes to Randy Lewis to be bottled as a Lewis Cellars Syrah, Pruett Vineyard," Pruett beams.

Of course, Pruett also maintains his day job, his ultra-successful racing career, where he currently leads the Rolex Sports Car Series standings in his Lexus prototype for Chip Ganassi Racing. He can clinch an American record eighth sports car championship this weekend at Sonoma. He is already a seven-time winner of the Daytona 24 Hours, as well as a past winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and a member of the International Race of Champions (IROC) Hall of Fame. He's competed in Indy cars, NASCAR and sports cars.

And when he's not on the race track or in the fields, Pruett and wife Judy can also be found working on their line of racing-themed children's books. The couple recently published their fourth book, "Racing Through the Alphabet," which joins "Twelve Little Race Cars," "Twelve More Little Race Cars," and "Rookie Racer" among the books offered by in-house publishing company Word Weaver Books.