From Design to Vine: Cosimo Pizzulli Gives a Tour of His Palisades Vineyard

Cosimo Pizzulli walks inside a 20-foot recycled USDA-certified shipping container normally meant to carry frozen foods, the same type found at San Pedro or other ports o’call.  Instead, this structure has been converted into an exquisite wine cellar that sits in the backyard of Pizzulli’s Palisades home.

“It’s all stainless steel lined and then I bought recycled old redwood boards, stripped them down, designed this wine cellar to hold 3,000 bottles, eight French Oak 30-gallon barrels, 10 cases of Champagne, a working table and a state of the art wine air conditioner,” he said.

Call it a personal feather in the cap of innovative designer Pizzulli. By day, he’s the owner of Pizzulli Associates, an interior architecture firm in Santa Monica.  His impressive projects include ultra-luxury suites for Steve Wynn’s Casino Resort in Las Vegas, the homes of Paul Anka and Larry King, interior designs for General Motors, Sony Music Entertainment, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, plus the Giorgio Baldi Restaurant on West Channel Road in Santa Monica.  

He’s also a sculptor, landscape designer, painter and lighting expert. He often brings a ‘green’ philosophy that respects nature and incorporates a sense of authenticity to everything that bears his mark.

“My design philosophy is to be true to the materials and respect nature, give back to the earth,” he said. “There are many materials that are biodegradable and can be recycled, thereby completing the cycle of life. If one is to select a wood, have it be a recycled composite of wood elements, not a plastic material that looks like wood, for example.”

Recently, Pizzulli was tapped to design Maison Giraud, a new restaurant in the space formerly occupied by on Swarthmore.

“Angelo Sambeat, who owned Dante for 30 years, wanted to retire,” he said.  Chef Alain Giraud, of Bastide fame, had wanted to open his first solo effort in Los Angeles and bring the food of Provence to the Palisades.

“As you know the geography is very similar. So the design philosophy is to reflect the simple elements found in restaurants of Provence,” said Pizzulli. 

Incorporating worldly knowledge and international expertise has helped establish Pizzulli as a unique creative in his field.

“I was classically trained on the East Coast and I’ve worked in Europe, so I have a lot of depth and education in art history, a solid foundation in classic architectures, periods of design,” he said. “And then coming to the West Coast you have the advent of modernism, postmodernism and international style. So from my fine art background, from designing products and sculptures, I think I bring to the table a breadth of history and knowledge of all these different periods and items that separates me from those that may be simply only West Coast-based.”

With an Italian flag prominently waving near the entrance to his estate, it is clear Pizzulli’s European ancestry has influenced his work.

“Watching their sensitivity to arts and design, it’s an everyday event,” he said. “Everybody who goes to Italy sees it-- in the streets, the stores, in the sculptures, and it’s part of your blood. Anyone who goes to Europe is influenced by it.  The arts are really important. The United States needs more of it.”

Pizzulli’s roots also led him to a passion for Italian grapes.  As a young child he watched his grandfather make wine in the basement of his Brooklyn home.  Years later, after buying a large property in the Palisades, he built a vineyard. With the help of some Malibu friends, he learned the craft of winemaking.

“I’ve planted the first sizeable vineyard in the Palisades,” he said. “We produce Sangiovese. We do anywhere from 50 to 75 gallons.”

Eventually, he launched the Pizzulli Family Winery,  located in Camarillo. His grapes are sustainably farmed and hand-picked in their Los Alamos Valley Vineyards in Santa Barbara County.  His wines can be found at WineExpo and select local restaurants, including Drago in Beverly Hills. Anyone attending the recent Palisades Winefest at Gladstones may have been lucky enough to sample his varietals, including Nebbiolo, Rose and Barbera. His award-winning 2007 Dolcetto beat out 27 other entries from around the world.   

“I’m probably the first Palisadian to win a Double Gold Best of Class at the California State Fair. It’s the oldest wine competition in the U.S. We’re a very small producer, we do under 500 cases at our winery up in Camarillo, so this is a major accomplishment for a local boy here in the Palisades.”

It’s no mystery that his naturalistic design philosophy parallels his approach to winemaking.

“My wines are all naturally produced, just as wine was produced hundreds of years ago. Nothing is added to our wines,” he said.  

Back in his converted shipping container, Pizzulli proudly pulls out a special bottle from his collection and reads the label. 

“Our local wine that we make from our hillside we call Paliscolo,” he says. “And our wine has a little story: ‘This hillside romp in the sun by the sea, this Paliscolo–or little Palisades boy–takes you there, light and full of bright berry flavors. This year’s vintage from our Oceanside vineyard promises great things to come.”

It’s a fair assumption that Pizzulli will deliver on that promise, whether by design or on the vine.