san diego, CA ( prsafe ) July 30, 2012 - Sunshine Mountain Vineyard, a family-owned winery in San Diego county has officially entered the running for "Best of" in San Diego. The tiny vineyard, owned by Claire and Ed Kruger, seeks to once again claim the first place prize in the San Diego Union Tribune's "Best of San Diego 2011" reader poll for the Local Winery category.

San Diego locals have once again submitted ballots online and via "snail mail" to the San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego's most popular newspaper with the a distribution of 300,000 copies daily. As they do every year, the newspaper has once again posed a simple but loaded question: "Which businesses are the best in San Diego?" The newspaper counted over 538,032 votes in 2011 and is planning to receive an even larger response in 2012.

Winners of the award will be selected from a variety of categories, including Auto, Bars & Nightlife, Entertainment, Finance, Food & Restaurants, For the Home, Healthy Living, Home Improvement, Real Estate, San Diego Life, Shopping & Services, and Sports & Recreation. Awards were also broken out into sub-categories, such as dive bar, dentist, solar contractor, health & fitness club, golf course, and more.

One winner from each will be awarded the San Diego's Best 2012 Award, the newspapers' highest distinction. All told, about 185 San Diego small and medium-sized businesses will be distinguished with the prize for "San Diego's Best."

The newspaper uses the opportunity to salute the winners on the "exemplary service/product/business model/overall good cheer" that they set.

"Let's make it two years in a row:) Vote for Sunshine Mountain Vineyard for San Diego's Best local winery," a company spokesman said via Twitter.

Sunshine Mountain Vineyard hopes to builds upon the momentum from the past year. Last year's winner for best Local Winery in 2011, the company expressed optimism at its chances for winning the title for a second year in a row. The vineyard claimed second place for best winery for 2010, then knocked off previous champion Wilson Creek Winery for the top spot. 2012 will be the third year since the inception of the "Local Winery" category, and sixth overall for the San Diego's best accolade.

Ed Kruger, co-founder of Sunshine Mountain Vineyard, possesses a true passion and enthusiasm for winemaking that is contagious. It has paid off. In the past two years, in addition to winning the "Best of San Diego" award, SMV has also won several medals in international wine competitions, including the Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition, the Riverside International Wine Competition, and the San Diego International Wine Competition. Perhaps more importantly, Claire and Ed Kruger treat honored guests with such warmth that one can't help but and feel like a member of the family. The company, on their Facebook page, defines a great wine as "one that starts and ends with a smile."

Voting for the competition officially ended in the beginning of July. The San Diego Union-Tribune will be announcing the winners on September 2, 2012, on the San Diego Union Tribune website, at signonsandiego.com/bestof.

Good luck to all San Diego businesses who are in the running for "best" of their categories for 2012!

For more details please visit: http://www.sunshinemountainvineyard.com

Contact Email: info@sunshinemountainvineyard.com

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