St. Anthony's Church in Oceanside to host virtual wine tasting event

Faced with the prospect of reduced attendance at Mass due to Covid-19, St. Anthony’s in Oceanside will be hosting a virtual wine tasting event in order to help raise funds to offset the losses they have incurred during the pandemic. 

The St. Anthony’s Fathers Club is organizing the event, which is set for April 24, and will be conducted in conjunction with The Wine Cellar in Oceanside, a local wine and spirits merchant. The Fathers Club is a group of dads and granddads at the parish that aims to provide both service to the St. Anthony’s community and a social avenue for fathers in the community to meet and get to know each other. 

“Given the Fathers Club’s dual mission of serving the parish and bringing people together, they thought this would be the perfect event to offer people a chance to share in a community together, while also raising funds for the parish,” Father James Donovan said, according to a news release.

The World Wine Tasting Tour event will feature wines from Italy, New Zealand and California. Each participant will receive three full-sized bottles of wine (one sparkling, one white and one red) chosen by The Wine Cellar. They will then receive a Zoom invitation to the virtual wine tasting on April 24 at 7 p.m. At the virtual event, a wine expert connected with the business will guide the group through the tasting, providing tips on how to get the most out of tasting their wine, together with information on the wine maker, the grapes they used and how they made the wine. 

After that, participants will have the option of breaking off into smaller groups of family or friends that they pre-designate in order to continue tasting their wine while sharing the experience on a more intimate level with their group. 

“We know people have been separated from each other and are starved for community right now,” Donovan said, according to the release.  “This gives them an opportunity to get together and do something fun with their friends and family, all while staying safe and physically distant.”

The cost of the event is $65, which includes a $20 donation to St. Anthony’s and $45 for the three full-sized bottles of wine for The Wine Cellar.  More information can be found at the parish website at sacli.org, or by emailing the Fathers Club at StAnthonysFathersClub@gmail.com. You can sign up at bit.ly/3lGlBgd.

Courtesy St. Anthony’s Church; compiled by Mike Smollins