If your list of 100 things to do before you die includes meeting Hello Kitty's maker, we can't help you with that ticket to Japan. But if meeting the cartoon's personal winemaker is close enough, it's your lucky weekend. Patrizia Torti of Tenimenti Castelrotto Torti, the Italian winery that makes those Rosé sparklers for the Hello Kitty label, will be at Wine Expo in Santa Monica this Saturday (the shop, not the wine bar, which is still under construction). She'll be on hand to discuss the wines, as well as sign bottles of her creations, on Saturday.

Torti is not a winery spokesperson, but actually the winemaker who infuses those bottles with perky pink Hello Kitty effervescence. And so to welcome her to LA, we suggest you wait a week to join that Hello Kitty Hell Facebook page and instead bake some Hello Kitty cupcakes. Maybe this pink cat craze will generate a Hello Kitty food truck. Wouldn't that be fantastic.

Hello Kitty winemaker bottle signing, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, June 26, Wine Expo, 2933 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, 310-828-4428, www.wineexpo.com.

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