Wine Tasting, Arts Event a Full-Bodied Success

More than 150 wine, food and art lovers attended the inaugural Wine Tasting With a Splash of Art! event at the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club on Saturday, Jan. 24 at the PPWC Clubhouse.

Guests sipped reds and whites from five wineries including Donelan Family Wines, Skinner Vineyards, Pali Wine Company, Toucan Wines and Tierra y Vino.

Appetizer samplers from restaurants Sam’s By the Beach, Taste at the Palisades and Matthew’s Garden Café kept patrons sated, while live music from Larry Cohn and his Canyon Bistro All Stars delighted the crowd.

Palisadian Christie Smith sipped on a Syrah from Toucan Wines while a friend enjoyed a glass of red from Tierra y Vino.

The women said they were having a lot of fun at the event.

Cush Donelan, a brother in the family business of Donelan Family Wines is an active supporter of PPWC events. Tim Perr and Scott Knight, co-owners of Pali Wine Co, are both Palisadians.

“We try to participate in as many Pali events as possible,” said Pali Wine Co partner Stacey Rosser, who was representing the company at the event. “We consider the Palisades to be our muse.”

Pali Wine Co sells a variety of wines honoring the various Palisades neighborhoods, including Huntington, Riviera, Alphabets and Bluffs pinot noirs.

Side-by-side with notable area artists was eight-year-old Corpus Christi School second grader Elisabeth Anisimow.

She was displaying and selling her paintings in between eating the pumpkin lasagna from Sam’s By the Beach and the Kobe beef meatballs with pine nuts, papaya BBQ sauce and corn salsa with a cilantro garnish from Taste at the Palisades.

Elizabeth’s mother Ekaterina Anisimova is a first-year member of the PPWC.

“For the inaugural event, we’re very pleased,” said Terri Lyman, PPWC president. “We’re grateful to our local vineyards and artists. The money raised will be going to the PPWC and all it does for the community. Our calendar for the year is filling up quickly and the building is being used from 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. on most days each week, and we’ll be entering phase two of our remodel this summer.”