How Rescue Dog Wines Is Saving Lives One Bottle at a Time

Rescue Dog Wines

Amy Castro 0:00

What happens when a love for wine and a passion for rescuing dogs comes together . You get Rescue Dog Wines , a company that blends philanthropy and fine wine . In this episode , I'm joined by Blair Lott , co-founder and CEO , whose journey from the music world to winemaking is full of unexpected twists you're not going to want to miss . We'll talk about the challenges of balancing business and a mission , and what's next for Rescue Dog Wines . Stay tuned . You're listening to Starlight Pet Talk , a podcast for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts , dog trainers , veterinarians and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets . Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk . I'm your host , Amy Castro , and my guest today is Blair Lott , and he is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Rescue Dog Wines . And I don't know about you , but I mean to have two things in one bottle that are like your favorite things . How can you do anything wrong with that ? But we're going to learn more about it .

Amy Castro 0:59

Blair spent the first years of his career working in the music world , writing and performing in Athens , Georgia , and then moving to Nashville and later on to Melbourne , Australia . He then transitioned into a career as a consumer insights and digital media consultant . During his three years in Australia , he became immersed in the food and wine scene and intrigued with the idea of making wine his vocation . So , after moving back to Atlanta and marrying his wife , Laura , they decided to move to Northern California to be closer to wine country and Laura's family , and I won't tell any more of a story because I want to hear from Blair as to how did that turn into Rescue Dog Wines . So first , Blair , welcome to the show .

Blair Lott 1:38

Yeah , well , thank you . Thank you Very , very happy to be here .

Amy Castro 1:42

Yeah , I'm excited . I had not heard of Rescue Dog Wines , but I'm all in now . So how did you go from deciding oh I think I might want to move to wine country , and I'm really interested in that to starting Rescue Dog Wines with its mission and all that ?

Blair Lott 1:59

Yeah , yeah , definitely . The idea kind of took a life of its own . Initially the plan was just to be growers right , I was going to continue my consulting career and then we were going to go grow grapes . I really was pushing for that to live out in the country , Kind of got tired of living in the Bay Area . Laura not so much , she's more of a city gal . So the deal we kind of came up with that if she could foster dogs , that we would move out to the country .

Blair Lott 2:28

Yeah . So we looked for properties and even when we were looking for the properties I would always ask about , you know , the grapes , but really it was fostering dogs . It was kind of the top of Laura's mind when we were kind of doing that due diligence around it . We finally found a fantastic property in Lodi and I mentioned along the way about doing a Rescue Dog Wines because of her interest in fostering dogs , and initially she said no . But as we kind of got on the property and saw what it would take , I pitched the idea that as a hobby , I would start this as an online business , and really that's how it started . But , like I said , it kind of took a life of its own .

Amy Castro 3:11

As do all things that involve dogs , I think , or getting into the rescue life . When it comes to a business , I would think that it might be a struggle and you can tell me it's one thing to be . I'm about money , I'm trying to make business , I'm trying to sell wine , get customers , but it's a whole another ball of wax . I think . When you are mission centric , like you are in you know , basically knowing that the proceeds of your wine are helping save the lives of rescue dogs , how do you find that balance to be a good businessman and a good steward of dog rescue ?

Blair Lott 3:44

Yeah , I mean mission first is really important . We really are a purpose-driven brand . We're not just cause marketing to sell wine . It really the biggest priority to us is being able to help save animal lives and really I think this is . You know , it's a very old business , a very entrenched business . There's a lot of beating your head against the wall . If I was just selling wine , you know , as a newcomer , without a story about how my family had been doing it for generations , I think you know I'd have given up the ghost a while back . But it's the mission that really drives me , gets me up in the morning .

Amy Castro 4:24

Yeah , that's great . I don't know a lot about the industry , but I know it can be certainly a tough one from a lot of different directions , and so you need something to drive you to keep driving forward . I'm sure how much does the mission impact decisions that you're involved in , as opposed to , maybe , somebody that just has a winery and just sells wine and it's not mission centric ? What's different about your day-to-day running of your business ?

Blair Lott 4:49

Yeah , I mean we'd see them as a partner , right , and I think that's kind of unique . And then if we're having a sales meeting and there's a buyer , but the buyer wants a discount and we'll go well , if there's nothing left for the dogs , it's not worth it for us to do right . So having margins to support our mission is always top of mind , and again it goes back to being mission driven why are we doing this ? And that really helps guide our choices .

Amy Castro 5:22

Okay , great . So tell us exactly how does this work , because there's a lot of people that say they give back and it's like such a small amount Not that it doesn't count , but you're exceptional in my experience . Tell us about how that works .

Blair Lott 5:38

Yeah , yeah , I mean , it was definitely baked into the business model , you know , the idea being that if we started this way , it wouldn't hurt , right ? If all of a sudden we decided we were going to give a X percentage or whatever . And that was very important to Laura , that we don't just make it some kind of gimmick to sell wine . And not only do I , everyone that works with us gets that . Like I said , when we have sales meetings , the sales guys understand that and it's really , really important and what drives everyone , and we give that in a lot of different ways .

Blair Lott 6:13

We have done cash donations . What has turned to be in our favorite way to give , but also seems to be the favorite way to receive by the organizations , is us donating wine and sometimes a representative to explain the mission to the rescue organizations . They really love that . They can take a small amount of wine and make a lot of dollars off of that , to the point where we've even had events where they've centered around our wine , maybe paired some food to that and sold tickets in advance for , say , $100 , and have a few hundred people , and then , when people get there , they have some wine , they bring out their checkbooks and donate even more , and it's really great to see .

Amy Castro 6:56

Yeah , serving wine at fundraisers is always a good idea . Loose with the tongue , loose with the pen , loose with the checkbook , it's always good Feeling good about yourself , good about life in general . That's great . So how does that work if I'm going to just go ahead and buy a bottle of wine online ? Am I still giving back to rescue pets ?

Blair Lott 7:16

Yeah , absolutely so . 50% of our profits go to rescue dog organizations . As I mentioned before , we really consider rescue dogs as an equal partnership in the business . So that's been from day one and we want to continue that and hopefully one day you know , when I retire and we're gone the company will continue on and maybe potentially do a hundred percent where it's part of a foundation or something like that . Wow , yeah .

Amy Castro 7:43

It's really something that we or something like that .

Blair Lott 7:44

Wow , yeah , it's really something that we hope will be around after we're gone .

Amy Castro 7:50

Yeah , I would hope so . I mean there's got to be somebody else out there other than you and me and your wife . You know that are like dogs wine like you can't . I'm sorry , you just can't go wrong with it . It's just such a great thing . I've seen a lot of fundraising things and I've seen 10% and I've seen you know 1% and I've seen you know it's . It's kind of like some of these online programs for these ginormous companies where , oh , it's the give back program and everybody's all excited about it . And as the receiver , when I get like a half a penny on the dollar , it's , it's nice , but it's not the big thing you think you're accomplishing . I mean , I get $76 a quarter and I'll take it , I'll use it , but I mean 50% is a whole nother ball of wax . So that just shows the commitment to the mission to me .

Blair Lott 8:35

Yeah , and then we're blessed that we didn't have to get outside investors or anything like that . We don't have stockholders to pay , so it's something that we were capable of doing .

Amy Castro 8:46

That's awesome . So what year did you start the company ?

Blair Lott 8:50

So we actually formed the corporation in 2017 and then started work on the first wine and then we released it around 4th of July 2018 . And at that time it was one blend . We made just a barrel of that and and thought , well , we'd make enough where if we couldn't sell it ?

Blair Lott 9:14

that we could drink it , or give it to our friends , so kind of a a no risk . You know , a startup and I put the first label we had the artist do before the wine was ready , put up on Facebook and at that time , you know , facebook was very organic and within 30 days we had around 10,000 likes or followers . It was just kind of blow your mind , amazing .

Amy Castro 9:39

I'm telling you you can't go wrong . You can't go wrong with dogs and wine . It's just a , it's a recipe for success . So how have things grown since then ? What are the things you've been proudest of , as you've seen the company and the mission grow ?

Blair Lott 9:52

Yeah , I mean it's been kind of nuts because over the first few years we were growing 100% or more every year , with just online sales , moving from one wine to now I think we have close to 10 different wines or different versions of wines , and then we're in retail stores in California and restaurants and stuff . And then we're looking to expand in California and restaurants and stuff , and then we're looking to expand to other states . But really the biggest milestone in my mind that we reached and that was back in September , so very recently we crossed the $100,000 given , and that , to me , is what it's all about . So I'm very proud of that .

Amy Castro 10:32

In the grand scheme of growing a business . That's not a huge period of time , that's a huge accomplishment .

Blair Lott 10:37

Yeah , and we're still very small . You've never heard of us , even though you're an active wine drinker and active in the dog community .

Amy Castro 10:46

Yeah , but I only drink the cheap wine though so I don't drink the good stuff .

Blair Lott 10:51

I'm no connoisseur , for sure but I am looking forward to trying that wine . Yeah , yeah , hopefully there were some weather issues with the heat getting it to you before the interview , but hopefully you'll get that soon and I think you will enjoy them .

Amy Castro 11:06

I'll do a non-connoisseurs review after the fact . Now , you definitely don't want that , but yeah , I'm looking forward to it . So how do you decide who you're going to help , what rescues that you're going to donate to ? Is there a process involved in that , or how does it work ?

Blair Lott 11:24

Yeah , and it's definitely evolved . Initially , rescue organizations would email us . 99% of them they find us and we find that that seems to work better , because I tried cold calling some and their initial reaction is what are you trying to sell me ? You know what is , what's , what's the ? So if they kind of hear from their people and they kind of get their head around it before they reach out to us . But now we have like a web form on our website . They're able to upload their 501Cs and all that information that helps kind of move the process a lot quicker and we're able to vet them very quickly and get them what they need . You know , if they're having an event , I'd like to have them do it maybe three or four weeks in advance . But you know , sometimes we can . If they're close by , we can do it a lot quicker .

Expanding Reach and Impact

Amy Castro 12:14

Yeah , I mean and I think that's pretty much that's fairly standard . I mean , any organization that you're going to ask to provide product for an event needs a little bit of a heads up . But you are expanded beyond just your local area . You're working with rescues around the country , right ?

Blair Lott 12:30

Yeah , that's correct . So through our compliant shipping system we can get wines to I think it's 47 states and as far as I know , I can't remember turning anyone down as far as what they're asking for . I've had to turn down organizations because they weren't properly set up as a charity and by law they have to for us to donate wine to them . But no , it's really fantastic to how widespread geographically at least , that we can reach and help organizations out and as we grow , that will grow . And that's the really exciting thing about this business is the future and how many animal lives and so many different places we can touch .

Amy Castro 13:11

Yeah , I mean obviously nobody's expecting you you to run all over the country jumping to everybody's event , but you said that you and your wife have had the opportunity to go to some of the events and really enjoyed that .

Blair Lott 13:23

Yeah , we really do , and we'd like to do that when we can right , you know , we obviously can't do it everywhere . It seems like we're giving something away on an almost daily basis . Now , it's kind of cool and , like I said , 99% of the organizations are legitimate organizations and I just I will give them something , right , and I don't think I've ever had one that just shopped for the moon or something , asked for something that we couldn't give .

Amy Castro 13:47

That's good . People aren't being greedy about it .

Blair Lott 13:51

Exactly , exactly , so yeah .

Amy Castro 13:53

I'm sure you probably interact with people on the wine side of the industry . Do they think you're nuts for doing this ?

Blair Lott 13:59

Yeah , it really varies . It's a wide variety . I know that I had one with me . But our head of sales in California . He's sitting next to a guy during a sales pitch meeting to a grocery chain and someone from the distributor that was there and that guy's like why do they do this ? He just cannot get us . Why would you want to give away your money was basically his point of view . So you have that every now and then .

Amy Castro 14:27

Yeah , I could see people thinking that it's a significant sum . That's for sure . As far as the feedback that you've gotten from rescues or maybe the events that you've attended , is there anything in particular that jumps out at you that says this right here is what makes it worth it , or this story , or whatever it might be ?

Blair Lott 14:45

Yeah , I mean we love a lot of the facilities , will let us tour and , you know , hold the animals or take pictures with them and seeing how their volunteers , our employees , are so passionate , you know , and we see from one-person organizations to . There's an organization in Southern California I think it's 200 employees and 1,400 volunteers , so we see the gamut right . But as a rule , everyone involved in this calls . They're always down to earth , they're always passionate about what they do and they're great people . So it's the people and the animals , of course , but the people that support the animals that really warm your heart as well .

Amy Castro 15:28

Yeah , I think it's interesting . You know , having done this rescue work as a volunteer the entire time I mean even you know when I started back volunteering at animal shelter it's like there's a certain level of crazy . You have to have going on to get involved in animal rescue , but money seems to be the furthest from anybody's mind . It's like , you know , I'll do it for free , I'll do it for a crappy salary , when I know I could get a better salary over here . And I think it's just that the mission is so important . I mean , how do you put a price on the life of an animal that relies on humans to stay alive ?

Blair Lott 16:00

Yeah , that's , absolutely so true .

Amy Castro 16:03

But at the same time I will balance that out with the fact that you've got to be smart about it . Like it would do nobody any good if your winery went out of business because of the philanthropy it's like . Then it's kind of pointless and it's the same thing in rescue . I see some people , whether it's mental or physical , driving themselves in the ground , or driving themselves in the ground financially . At some point you have to create parameters and good practices to make things work . But I think , like you had mentioned a couple of times , the mission is the thing that drives everything .

Blair Lott 16:32

Yeah , absolutely .

Amy Castro 16:33

So what does the future hold ? Do you have big plans or any exciting changes , new products , new programs that you have lined up for the future ?

Blair Lott 16:44

Yeah , I mean , we had a sweepstakes , that kind of attaches to our holiday , that we celebrate Rescue Dog Month , and we're figuring out how to use that to not only promote our brand but also promote rescue organizations . So it's really about saying , hey , if you're going to adopt a dog , this is a great month to do it kind of thing right . It's starting to get ground . This is a great month to do it kind of thing right . It's starting to gain ground . We're starting to figure out how to do that and kind of lead to the end of the year , which is our biggest selling season , into the holidays Because of the hurricanes . We decided during the month of October because the timing was right there and there was an immediate need that 10% of everything people spend in our online store in October goes directly to a handful of organizations in Florida and North Carolina .

Amy Castro 17:36

Okay . So that's awesome , and for those of you who are listening to this right now , there's still plenty of October left

Rescue Dog Wines Impact and Mission

Amy Castro 17:41

. No excuses to go ahead and order some wine . I mean , we've all seen the videos , seen the things on the news . I mean it's devastation for humans and animals alike , so I can only imagine . I mean I know what it was like just trying to hold down the fort here at my little rescue ranch during Hurricane Beryl , and you know , let alone , we didn't have any massive damage afterwards . But they're going to definitely use all the help they can get , and you get a bottle of wine for it too .

Blair Lott 18:09

So you know , everybody wins in that instance . Yeah , yeah , absolutely yeah .

Amy Castro 18:11

And it is such an immediate need ? Yeah , for sure , and we're going to put links and things like that up on our show notes so people can get to your website and , you know , get to more information about what you're doing . What else can people do to help support your cause other than buying wine and , you know , telling their rescue friends ? Hey , you need to get connected with rescue dog wines .

Blair Lott 18:28

Telling their rescue friends . Hey , you need to get connected with rescue dog wines . No , really , it's like be a part of the rescue community , I think . Volunteer your time , open up your checkbooks , all of the above it's such an important need . Spay and neutering very important for specific programs that support that to make the situation more manageable where there's not so many animals out there that get in desperate straits . So I think , yeah , we need to culturally rethink how we think about our pets and our farm animals and stuff like that .

Amy Castro 19:01

Yeah , definitely . I mean , that's something that we try to stress a lot on this show is that pets are for life and you've got to . You know , you've got to take care of them and the spay and neuter and the , you know vaccination and everything else you know , appropriate to their age and all of that is just so important . But yeah , I know that I know California really struggles , because I think California is the number one state for shelter , euthanasia , and we in Texas are right behind you as far as the hundreds of thousands of animals being euthanized . I think the primary reason is lack of spay and neuter . It's just that perpetual cycle of puppies and kittens being born and not enough people to take them in . So we all need to work on that for sure .

Blair Lott 19:42

Yeah , no , we'd really love to see where the 100% of the US was no kill , where there was no need for that .

Amy Castro 19:50

Definitely All right . So now I'm going to get personal . So tell us about . Do you have foster dogs now ? Is that where Laura is ? She's taking care of those foster dogs while we're on this call .

Blair Lott 20:01

We are currently between fosters and we recently lost Daisy , but we do have five rescue cats .

Amy Castro 20:10

Ah , that's right , you said you had your cat guy or you have at the moment , right At the moment , it just again .

Blair Lott 20:17

It's something that's kind of evolved in its own Three of the cats we found among many cats . Laura got very active with the kind of the trap and neuter program and was able to place most of those kittens , but two of them we were fostering them in Foster Field and then one slightly older cat , about a year old cat . He showed up one day , jumped into my arms oh , wow .

Blair Lott 20:48

And initially I thought , well , this is a neighbor's cat . But we did all the things that you should do put up posters , took him to see if he had a chip that identified him , and so eventually he ended up , made his way into the house and into our hearts , and then we ended up getting two additional cats . Laura's sister passed away and she had two rescue cats , and so we ended up getting two additional cats . Laura's sister passed away and she had two rescue cats , and so we took those on as well . So we're a quickly growing cat family .

Amy Castro 21:16

For a couple of years , yeah , you know what that means , though , don't you ?

Blair Lott 21:20

What's that ?

Amy Castro 21:21

You got to start a whole another line of product , rescue cat cheese . Don't they do cheese in California ? I mean , I know Wisconsin's cheese , but I know there's cheese .

Blair Lott 21:30

There is . There is . That's a good idea . We do have one uh , very nice sparkling wine on our website . Only that has a cat , and that was for one of Laura's sisters . It's called the Liesel . Her sister was named Liesel and it was . We did that in her memory .

Amy Castro 21:47

Oh , that's nice . That's nice . So you do have a cat product . I got to check all the products cause .

Blair Lott 21:51

I didn't look at .

Amy Castro 21:52

I didn't look at all of them . I need to check them out . Do you have a favorite product , Like if somebody was like I can only do , let's say , two bottles of wine . I'm going to order two bottles of wine to check it out what's your , what's your go-to .

Blair Lott 22:04

I love our Cabernet .

Amy Castro 22:05

I'm a Cabernet drinker , you're a Cab guy , okay .

Blair Lott 22:08

And I really , yeah , I think our Cabernet will stand up against anything from Napa , and it's just , it's exquisite .

Amy Castro 22:17

Nice ? All right , I'll have to check that out . What about on the white side , because I'm more of a white wine drinker .

Blair Lott 22:23

I really like the Sab Blanc .

Amy Castro 22:25

I'm writing this down , by the way .

Blair Lott 22:28

Yeah , one of the first wines I was introduced as a young man was I took a trip to Europe and Sainte-Blanc . It's a Sainte-Blanc basically from the Rhone wine region and Lodi has a very similar climate , so it presents itself very similar to those wines . Instead of being like a New Zealand Sablan , it has a very floral nose , cut grass , Anyways , it's almost like a different wine compared to even coastal Sablans in California or New Zealand . It's very much more like it's a hot Mediterranean climate , like where Sancerre is , and it's very similar wine and I love it In the summertime . Yeah , great , by the pool . It's very refreshing .

Amy Castro 23:13

That's what I was thinking when you were talking about cut grass and all that . I'm like oh , that sounds like a good summer wine for me there .

Blair Lott 23:19

Yeah , for sure .

Amy Castro 23:20

Although I'm in Texas , so it's summer all year round . I can drink it whenever I want , for the most part .

Blair Lott 23:26

That's right .

Amy Castro 23:28

All right . So my last question . I don't know if this is going to be a clunker or not , but if Rescue Dog Wines was a breed of dog , what breed of dog do you think represents the wine and why ?

Blair Lott 23:40

Yeah , I'm going to have to say Boxer Daisy was a boxer and she was truly the inspiration for the brand and she really taught us the value of a rescue animal and was a great companion for 15 years to Laura and myself , and so just a fantastic animal , and I think she was probably a year old or more when Laura found her . So , yeah , she changed our lives .

Amy Castro 24:07

Awesome , that's great . Well , golly , Blair , thank you so much for being on the show today . I'm so glad for the opportunity to hear about the wine . I can't wait to get it and try it , to learn more about the mission . I can only imagine being on the inside of a rescue all the amazing impact that your generosity has had on the rescues who've been involved with you . So thank you for not only being here , but for you and your wife . Tell her thank you as well for everything that you do for rescue animals .

Blair Lott 24:36

Well , thank you so much for having us and helping us spread the word .

Amy Castro 24:40

All right , awesome . And thank you again to everybody for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk . Don't forget to check out those show notes and don't wait , don't say I'm going to do that later . Go do it now , because we're we have that special opportunity to help people in Florida and in North Carolina the rescues that have been impacted there by checking out the wine , buying it now , before the end of the month , to have that extra give involved . So make sure you check that out today , as soon as you're done listening . So make sure you check that out today , as soon as you're done listening . And again , thank you for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk . We'll see you next week . As we close out today's episode , I want to make sure that you realize that the journey doesn't end here . We have tons of information for you in our show notes , including additional resources , links that you can get further information , and sometimes we might even have some surprises there for you as well . Keep in mind , too , that our conversation is a two-way street . This is your show , too , and we want you to get involved If you have questions stirring in your mind , ideas you're burning to share or a story that you think the world

Engage With Starlight Pet Talk

Amy Castro 25:40

needs to hear .

Amy Castro 25:40

Don't keep it to yourself . Let us know about it . Your thoughts , your questions and your ideas are the lifeblood of the show , and we cannot wait to hear them . You can find all the ways to contact us in the show notes or on our website . So don't be a stranger . Drop us a line , send us a note , send us a voicemail , get in touch on social media . Let's keep this conversation going and build a community that's driven by curiosity , empathy , understanding and our shared love of pets . Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk and if you don't do anything else this week , give your pets a big hug from us .