Building on the success of last year’s inaugural event, ZLAC Rowing Club will again open their historic Sail Bay clubhouse, located at 1111 Pacific Beach Drive, to the community for their Second Annual Wine Tasting Seminar on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The seminar, featuring the wines of Orfila Vineyards, is a fund-raiser benefiting preservation of ZLAC’s historic clubhouse, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. Tickets are $25 per person.
Benjamin Weir, Orfila’s tasting room manager, will present six current releases from the winery, which has won 1,059 medals at prestigious national wine competitions, according to Orfila General Manager and Winemaker Leon Santoro. Orfila Vineyards and Winery is located in San Diego County’s San Pasqual Valley near the Wild Animal Park.
The six presented will include three estate-grown wines produced from Orfila’s own hillside vineyards, which specialize in Rhône and Mediterranean varietals. These will be the Viognier Cuvée Lotus, Syrah and Sangiovese. Also included will be two Chardonnays, the Coastal made from grapes from Santa Barbara County’s legendary Bien Nacido Vineyard, and the Ambassador’s Reserve, vinted from grapes from San Luis Obispo’s renowned Edna Valley.
“Both Chardonnays are wines from cool climates. I make them in contrasting and opposite styles. The Bien Nacido is lighter and less oaky. The Reserve is 100 percent oak-fermented in French oak,” Santoro explained. This will enable guests to experience different types of Chardonnay, side by side.
Rounding out the tasting will be an aromatic Muscat Canelli dessert wine, which pairs well with fruity desserts.
“We’ll also provide a fabulous and generous display of fruits, cheese, breads and crackers and live music. A cellist and pianist will provide background music,” said Nancy Perry, ZLAC president.
ZLAC was founded in 1892 by sisters Lena, Agnes and Caroline Polhamus and their best friend Zulette Lamb, who used the initials of their first names to name their rowing club.
“It was unheard of at that time that women would be rowing,” Perry said.
“ZLAC has the distinction of being the oldest women’s rowing club in the world,” she explained. Research conducted by the River and Rowing Museum of Henley-on-Thames, England, recently confirmed their pioneering status. “ZLAC is included in (the museum’s) new exhibition on the history of rowing, which commemorates the world championship regatta held in August 2006,” she said.
ZLAC moved from their original boathouse on San Diego Bay, located near the current Seaport Village, to Sail Bay in 1932. Their bayfront clubhouse was designed by prominent San Diego architect Lilian Rice, a ZLAC member who was club president in 1915-16 and who is now best known for designing the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe and many residences in Rancho Santa Fe, where she lived for many years.
“She was one of the first female graduates of the new architecture school at the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated in 1910,” Perry said.
Next year the club plans to mark the clubhouse’s 75th birthday with a celebration open to the community.
ZLAC has about 425 members from throughout the San Diego region and beyond. The club offers rowing instruction to the public to any women and girls who wish to enroll in their classes. “It’s a great exercise you can do your whole life. It’s a smooth exercise that’s not hard on your body,” Perry said. ZLAC’S members range in age from 14 to the mid-90s.
“We have numerous multi-generational members ” legacies ” whose grandmothers, mothers and daughters have been in ZLAC. It’s a very special place. It’s not just a rowing club. It has such a rich heritage. Through rowing people develop lifelong friendships,” Perry added.
Now, ZLAC is encouraging neighbors to attend the wine seminar on Sept. 13 and taste the “Old San Diego” embodied in their historic clubhouse, which is also available for rental to the public for special events.
“It’s a great way to introduce the community to the amazing tradition that ZLAC has represented since 1892, and a way for neighbors to come in, tour the building and see what ZLAC is all about,” said ZLAC crew member Celia Sullivan, who is coordinating the event.
For tickets to the wine tasting seminar, call Sullivan at (619) 435-3684. For more information about ZLAC and their history, visit their Web site at www.zlac.org.