It’s hard to believe 5 years have passed since Rescue Dog Wines released our first wine and committed to share 50% of our profits with animal rescue organizations. We have been fortunate to partner with and donate to over 70 amazing organizations in that time.
We’ve also had the opportunity to pour our award-winning wines at many events, which has given us the opportunity to meet some of the fantastic people who drink our wine and support our mission. Visit our Events page to discover some of our recent and upcoming events.
You may know that Laura and I started planning our new life in wine country over 8 years ago. (Wow, that’s hard to believe!) We knew that we wanted to embrace sustainable growing practices and create a new, more rewarding lifestyle for ourselves. We knew that lifestyle meant finding enough land to grow wine grapes AND foster dogs. And we knew that we wanted to create high quality, premium wines. During this period of exploring California’s wine regions, we discovered that we could combine our two passions—and Rescue Dog Wines was born!
We want to shine a light on our philosophy of quality, which is based on a commitment to Lodi Rules (you can read more about Lodi Rules and California Rules at lodirules.org). This commitment is overseen by both our chief winemaker Susy Rodriguez-Vasquez and our talented sparkling winemaker Eric Donaldson who work intensely to improve our wines with each vintage. The core value behind our approach to winemaking is:
Quality is derived partially by:
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Sustainability (defined by both Lodi and California Rules), and
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Our collective desire to “make the wine in the vineyard.”
To learn more about our winery’s values, see this fantastic interview with Susy.
Lodi Rules is a set of sustainability standards used by winegrowers in the Lodi AVA as well as locations as far away as Israel. These standards are designed to protect the environment, the workers who harvest the grapes, and the quality of the wine. They are benchmarked by over 150 practices. Some of those key Lodi Rules practices include:
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Water conservation. Lodi Rules growers conserve water and protect the environment by using drip irrigation. Little water is wasted.
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Soil health. Lodi Rules growers use cover crops and compost to improve soil health. These techniques reduce erosion and improve the quality of our grapes. Our desire is to continually improve soil with an eye toward leaving the soil in better shape than when we planted.
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Pest management. We use integrated pest management (IPM) to control pests, which reduces pesticide use to help protect the environment.
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Worker safety. As committed Lodi Rules growers, we provide safe working conditions for our employees. Safe use of equipment and personal protective gear are essential training for our people.
In addition, we are huge fans of vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trellising, hand-pruning, hand harvesting, and aggressive canopy management to ensure the highest quality fruit for our wines.
We’re proud that Rescue Dog Wines uses Lodi Rules practices in our own vineyard and only purchases grapes to include in our wines from other Lodi Rules growers. We believe that these practices benefit the environment, are safer for workers, and ensure quality wine.
We also feel that rescue dogs deserve the best possible wines to represent them. With our permanent commitment to give 50% of our profits to rescue organizations, we’re constantly reviewing and improving the quality and taste of our wines to honor the companion animals we serve. Please try our wine and let us know what you think!
-Cheers, Blair & Laura
