Toasting the Holiday

The most pleasing holiday sound for Bruce Boring is not jingling bells--it’s clinking wine glasses.

But that’s not surprising, given that Boring is vice president of the California Wine Club of Ventura, for which December is far and away the busiest month of the year.

Founded in 1990, the club every month supplies its more than 8,000 members with a couple of bottles of wine from a featured small winery in California, as well as an eight-page newsletter.

Boring and his co-workers transact business with about 30 customers on an average day, 11 months of the year. But in December, business pours in much more rapidly--in the form of memberships and wine purchased as holiday gifts.

“We’re pretty stable throughout the year. We wouldn’t be considered seasonal,” Boring said. “But when Christmas comes, our membership grows 50% or so.”

In a four-day period last week, the wine club had 1,300 customers, including a record day of 389. In comparison, the club had 425 customers during all of its debut year.

Boring attributes that success both to the way it conducts business and to an overall heightened interest in wine.

“Over the last half a dozen years there’s been a tremendous amount of press, starting with two ’60 Minutes’ episodes, on the health benefits of wine--that probably one of the best things you can do for your life is drink a little bit of wine, in moderation,” Boring said.

“Baby boomers are saying, ‘Hey, we’re getting a little older and we’d like to live a little longer,’ ” he said. “That has made the wine industry a little more alluring.”

At the top of the wine list, this holiday season, are merlots and champagnes. And as usual, chardonnays (white) and cabernets (red) are popular selections. And if purchased from the California Wine Club, the buyer can be sure it’s from a small winery.

“In California there are 1,200 wineries and 80% to 90% are mom-and-pops, and that’s what we focus on,” Boring said. “People like those wines, and what is also neat is we are helping the small vendor. We’re giving them exposure it would take them years to get.”

Featuring one winery a month, Boring figures he can continue for many years without repeating a vintner.

“When we first started out, we would have to chase down wineries,” he said. “Now we’re booked through October of 1998.”

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It will be a Happy New Year after all for Tom Petrucci, owner of Petrucci’s Italian Ristorante in Camarillo.

Two months ago, the restaurateur announced he would be closing his nearly 6-year-old establishment because of uncertainty about its future--an uncertainty created by Caltrans’ plans to displace the eatery with construction of freeway on- and offramps to replace the neighboring Fulton Street bridge.

A New Year’s Eve bash was expected to be the finale for the restaurant.

But diners can now go ahead and make reservations for Jan. 1 and any day thereafter. Petrucci has signed a long-term lease on the building, and he plans to hunker down there until Caltrans notifies him otherwise.

“We negotiated a 10-year lease and will remain open--it’s business as usual,” said Petrucci, who also owns Petrucci’s Bistro in Oxnard. “Eventually, Caltrans is going to take the Camarillo location, but we can’t get any concrete information. It could be two years or 10.”

Petrucci’s Italian Ristorante is at 2503 E. Ventura Blvd.

Last week’s Tidbits column included an item about “A Taste of Tradition,” a 350-recipe cookbook published by the Anacapa Chapter of the Assn. for Office Professionals. To order the cookbook, send $12.95 plus $1.75 for shipping and handling to PSI--Assn. of Office Professionals, Anacapa Chapter--Cookbook, P.O. Box 2327, Camarillo 93011. For more information call 497-4759.