How does someone go from being a professional opera singer to becoming a winemaker and subsequently owning a double-gold medal award-winning winery?
That and many other questions will be answered when ZLAC Rowing Club hosts its 3rd annual wine tasting fundraiser on Wednesday., Sept. 12 at its historic clubhouse located at 1111 Pacific Beach Drive on Sail Bay. Doors open for the event at 6 p.m., with the wine tasting running from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The event is open to the public and offers an ideal way for community members to acquaint themselves with both the rowing club’s activities and the historic clubhouse, explained event chair Celia Sullivan. Tickets are $25 per person.
Scheduling this year’s event was certain before the conclusion of last year’s wine tasting, which featured Orfila Vineyards and Winery.
“Guests last year had so much fun that they demanded to know when the next one would be,” Sullivan laughed.
“The main focus of the event is that every guest have an amazing time,” Sullivan said. “This isn’t your normal wine tasting. It’s an evening of being with likeminded people with the backdrop of the bay, the sunset and live music. It creates a magical evening.”
This year’s tasting presents Salerno Winery, a boutique winery in San Diego County’s Ramona Valley, a relatively new winegrowing area which last year received its official appellation as a viticultural region, the third in the South Coast section of Southern California.
Herman and Rose Salerno planted their first vineyard in 1998 and had their first vintage in 2002. Already the young winery has won 25 medals in international wine competitions, including a double gold medal for an early release of their signature wine, Petite Sirah, which is grown on their four-acre Ramona property.
They purchase grapes from Paso Robles, Lodi and Clarksburg to make many of the approximately 10 different wines they produce, explained co-owner Rose Salerno. She said they plan to open a tasting room at the winery as soon as they receive county approval.
Rose’s Italian-born husband, Herman, performed in operas around the world as a basso profundo before retiring from singing to become a winemaker. He served as winemaker at Bernardo Winery in Rancho Bernardo for 10 years before starting his own winery. Previously he had won numerous ribbons and other awards as an amateur winemaker, she said.
The Salernos will bring five current releases, three reds and two whites, for guests to taste at ZLAC. The reds will be their Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon, both 2003 vintages, and their Inspiration 2004, a blend of Petite Sirah and Ruby Cabernet. The whites will be their Bianco Tosto, an off-dry blend of six grapes including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Moscato, and their dessert wine, Muscat Canelli.
“We like to blend and blend a lot with Petite Sirah,” Rose said.
The Salerno wines will be accompanied with a lavish spread of cheese, salami, bread, fruit and chocolate to match the wines.
A favorite from previous years, pianist Jane Casady will return to entertain guests with her hot Dixieland jazz.
“Any funds raised by the wine tasting will help with the restoration of our beautiful historic clubhouse on Mission Bay,” said ZLAC President Nancy Perry.
The two previous wine tastings helped buy a new roof and fund historically correct replacement windows for the clubhouse, which just celebrated its 75th birthday on Aug. 26. The clubhouse design won an architectural society award for its architect, Lillian Rice, when it was completed in 1932, Perry said.
Rice, a prominent San Diego architect, was a ZLAC member who was club president from 1915 to 1916. She is now best remembered for designing the Rancho Santa Fe Inn and many homes in Rancho Santa Fe, where she resided 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.
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. They set up their original boathouse on San Diego Bay, near the current location of Seaport Village.
“It was unheard of at that time that women would be rowing. ZLAC has the distinction of being the oldest women’s rowing club in the world,” Perry said.
Research conducted by the River and Rowing Museum of Henley-on-Thames, England, 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 Aug. 2006,” Perry said. The exhibition continues for five years.
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 classes.
“It’s a great exercise you can do your whole life. It’s a smooth exercise that’s not hard on your body,” she said. ZLAC’s members range in age from 14 to the mid-90s.
Now, ZLAC is inviting neighbors to attend the wine tasting on Sept. 12 and experience the “Old San Diego” embodied in their historic clubhouse, which is also available for rental to the public for private functions.
For tickets to the wine tasting, call Sullivan at (619) 435-3684. For more information, visit their website at www.zlac.org.