Mapping Out a Palisades Brand of Fine Wine

Pop quiz! What do following names have in common?

The Bluffs. Riviera.  Huntington. Chautauqua. Temescal. Charm Acres. Summit.

If you answered: "They’re all parts of Pacific Palisades," you’d be partially right. They are also names of premium wines.

Say hello to the Pali Wine Company, the brainchild of local entrepreneurs Tim Perr and Scott Knight, who name each of their wines after familiar Palisades areas.

“Our wines are named after neighborhoods,” said Tim Perr. “We have the Riviera, The Huntington, The Bluffs, and the Alphabets. Those are the four main brands. There’s also the Summit, the Highlands, the Temescal, and Sunset. So it’s all tied to the Palisades.

‘We have Proprietors Reserve Wines and we named them Albright, Buster and Chautauqua,”  Perr continued. “We were going to go in order, and we’re backed up on those wines, so we’re waiting before we go to ‘D’ which would probably be Drummond.  Those are called the Alphabet Streets.  So we tie in everything back to the Palisades whenever we’re looking for a name.”

The story behind the winery began in the early 1990s, when Tim and Scott formed Perr/Knight, an actuarial and insurance services firm, with offices located on Alma Real.  Currently, they have 100 employees working for them worldwide. Perr resides in the Palisades while Knight lives in Santa Monica.  In 2005, the partners got the itch to start something new, remembering the good old days when they launched their insurance firm out of Perr’s garage.

“After 10 years of being in existence, we felt confident enough that we wanted to look at another business,” Perr said.  “We really enjoy the entrepreneurial part of business and this time instead of picking insurance, we decided to pick something that was fun for us.”

They finally landed on starting a wine business, did plenty of research and learned some lessons from other wine owners.  One important decision was not to buy a vineyard.

“We’d rather put our money into the facilities and marketing and sales,” Tim said. “What we ended up doing was buying a piece of land and putting a winery on it and that’s our capital investment.  By not buying a vineyard, it allowed us to purchase fruit from a diverse set of vineyards. The goal was to make quality value oriented wine from all the best places.”

They first began producing single-vineyard bottlings with Pinot Noir grapes from renowned sources like Durrell in Sonoma, Keefer Ranch in the Russian River Valley, Fiddlestix in Santa Rita Hills. They also bought premium grapes from Oregon.

“Pinot Noir was selected because we all liked it and the winery was going to be put in Lompoc because that was the closest serious wine making area to Los Angeles,” Perr said. “It would be silly for us to put a winery in Sonoma and then not be able to get up there. So Lompoc is two-and-a-half hours away and we can get up there when we need to. Also, Lompoc is in the center of the Santa Rita Hills, which is a premiere growing area.”

So where did the name come from?

“In the beginning, we were trying to find a suitable name for the winery and couldn’t use someone’s name and we tossed up a whole bunch of ideas,” said Perr.  “What it came down to was one thing we all had in common. We worked or lived in Pacific Palisades and so Pali Wine Company was born.”

After a few years, Perr and Knight realized there was less need for vineyard-designated wines and opted to create a “Cuvee Program” of Pinot Noir blends named for Pali nabes and affordably priced.

“I could tell you that for every Durrell vineyard-- which is a high quality vineyard in Sonoma-- there’s at least ten other vineyards that are producing the same quality wines that don’t have the name,” said Tim.  “And they can’t afford to sell or get the same demand to sell their grapes for the same prices. So, coupled with the kind of economic downturn where people couldn’t afford to buy the $40 to $60 bottles of wine, we saw an opportunity to go to these lesser-known vineyards and say we’ll buy fruit in larger quantities but we have to get a price that fits the price point of our bottle. There are anywhere from ten vineyards going into one of these wines, none of them want their names associated with a $20 bottle of wine. Contractually we can’t put the names of the vineyards on them and a lot of these vineyards would sell fruit at a lot higher price if you wanted to put their name it.”

Five years in, Perr and Knight are pleased with the progress of Pali Wine Company. The fruits of their labor-- no pun intended—have resulted in award-winning wines, including a 96 rating from Wine Spectator Magazine. A lot of their success comes from their unique, ying-yang kind of partnership.
“Scott Knight is a great sales guy people person remembers everyone’s name, he likes to schmooz, and has no problems cold calling and getting rejections,” said Perr. “Whereas I like to be in the back putting together the deals on the grapes and the numbers, figuring how much we can pay, dealing with the banking, hiring the winemakers. Stuff I wouldn’t want to do he does, stuff he wouldn’t want to do I do. It’s a good relationship for any business and that’s why it’s worked out real well.”

Currently, they are working on a new wine label, The Tower series, named for some nearby lifeguard stations.

“We had this facility and we were making Pinot, a little bit of Chardonnay, Grenache, and we said ‘wouldn’t it be fun to do other varietals?’” Tim said.  “I made some connections with vineyards and found all these fun things like Zinfandel, Petite Syrah, Barbera and I said, ‘let’s get a little bit of that.’”

“We called it the Tower Series and changed the design on the label,” Perr continued. “So the next one to be bottled will have its own label. It will be a subsidiary of Pali, something like Tower Wine Company or Tower Cellars and that will be its permanent label. Each year they’ll have a new cover for those Towers.”

“I think we’ll concentrate on Paso Robles with that label, because I’m starting to love Paso Robles,” Perr said. “It’s a world class region.  The Bordeaux varietals are first rate, the Cab, the Syrah, and Rhone Varietals are great, too.” 

The Tower Series joins Pali Wine’s recent releases, which include the 2009 Pinot Noir Blends: Riviera (Sonoma Coast), The Alphabets (Willamette Valley), Bluffs (Russian River Valley), Summit (Santa Barbara & Monterey); a 2008 Sunset Rose; 2009 Charm Acres Chardonnay; 2007 Highlands Cabernet Sauvignon Blend (Napa); and a 2009 Temescal Grenache/Mourvedre Blend. Even though most Pali wines are bought through their mailing lists and at the Lompoc facility, anyone looking to sample one of their bottles needn’t go far. 

“Gelson’s has been a big supporter since the beginning,” said Perr.  “We’ll give them whatever they want. Taste has been a big supporter both here in the Highlands and their other restaurant on Melrose.”  You’ll also find Pali on restaurant wine lists such as The Buffalo Club, Rustic Canyon, Boa, Houston’s in Century City, and, soon, eateries in Westlake Village and Agoura.

With their knack for choosing superior grapes and commitment to keeping their wines at decent prices, Perr and Knight are destined to keep Pali Wine a respected and successful label for many years to come.

“My day job involves working with numbers, making phone calls, and filling out spreadsheets,” Perr said. “And here I’m actually producing a product and that’s a good feeling.”

To order Pali wines, log onto their websitee-mail them at info@pailwineco.com, or visit the winery at 1036 W. Aviation Dr., Lompoc, CA 93436. Contact: (805) 736-7200.