They’ll turn out by the hundreds Sunday...

They’ll turn out by the hundreds Sunday at the Torrance Marriott Hotel to sip fine wine, munch on good food and put up to $15,000 into the coffers of a Gardena day-care center for frail seniors.

Cabernets, white and rose wines, and white zinfandels from 24 wineries will be poured at the ninth annual “Fall Festival of Wines,” sponsored by the Gardena Valley Chamber of Commerce. Hours are 4 to 7 p.m.

Beer fanciers can enjoy a variety of brews--including a beer brewed specially for celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, Eureka--and there will be sodas for those who don’t drink alcohol.

Fourteen restaurants and purveyors will serve seafood, quiche, Mexican, Italian and Peruvian dishes, plus chocolate, desserts, coffees, and as many different kinds of olives as anyone could wish for.

“There’ll be enough food for people to make a dinner out of it,” said Ellen Emerson, a Gardena Recreation and Human Services Department administrative coordinator, who is helping put on the festival. “If people find a wine they like, they can ask a lot of questions about the grapes and where they can buy the wine.”

Potted plants and balloons will decorate the hotel’s grand ballroom, and party-goers will be entertained by two pianists. “We’ll have drawings for hundreds of door prizes, including wine, dinners for two, flower arrangements and trips,” Emerson said.

The wine festival is the major fund-raiser for the Gardena Senior Citizens Day Care Center, which helps older adults who have had strokes or suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Emerson said the center gives working people with family members who are invalids an alternative to placing them in nursing homes.

Admission is $22.50, which includes wine and food and a souvenir wine glass. The Torrance Marriott is at 3635 Fashion Way.