A paint and pour class at Pinot’s Palette Thursday had a guest of honor with some star power.
Today Show host and avid wine-drinker Kathie Lee Gifford sat in on a session while promoting her Gifft Wines, which will now be flowing at the Pinot’s Palette bar.
Gifford had never attended a paint and pour, a popular activity that marries wine and painting class.
“I’m just so fascinated by the concept here,” Gifford said in an interview. “I love this creative environment.”
Gifford, who lives in Greenwich, was excited to celebrate her wine label’s arrival at Stamford’s Pinot’s Palette. She reminisced about the days when she worked on Summer Street in downtown Stamford, and said she still loves visiting the city’s Columbus Park restaurant corridor—especially for Alive@Five.
“That’s such a fun little concert series,” she said.
Chad Smith, co-owner of the Metro North Pinot’s Palette studios—located in Stamford, Norwalk, Mamaroneck, and Toronto, Ontario—said Gifford and her Gifft Wines make for the perfect partnership.
“If I had to pick a celebrity spokesperson it would be Kathie Lee Gifford. She’s fun, she likes her wine, she’s creative,” Smith said.
Gifford’s four vinos—a Chardonnay, a red blend, a Pinot Noir Rose and a Pinot Grigio—are now the featured wine at Pinot’s Palette’s bar.
“We have four babies now, I’m pregnant with a fifth,” Gifford riffed to the group of mostly women who had reserved easels at the sold-out painting class Thursday.
Gifft Wines and its vineyard partner Sheid Family Wines will release a sweeter white blend this summer.
“What we don’t have in our line of wines is a sweeter wine. I’m not that sweet, as you all know. Hoda’s the sweet one,” she said, referring to her Today Show co-host Hoda Kotb and gearing up for one of her classic one-liners.
“I like the little tart—I’m sort of a tart.”
Groups of women lined up to take photos with Gifford before they sat down to paint their sunset vista. One painter, Stamford resident Taryn Greene, said she had been looking forward this this night for weeks.
“I’m a big fan of Kathie Lee … I’m a nanny, so I get to watch her almost every day,” she said. “I also love her wines, I tried them at the Greenwich Food and Wine Festival, so I’m excited to have it again tonight.”
