1
00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:03,480
Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right podcast.

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:06,519
We're super excited today to have with us the founder

3
00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:10,599
and CEO of Republican Read Wines, Paul Johnson, is with

4
00:00:10,679 --> 00:00:15,839
us to talk about wines, tariffs, conversation, all of it.

5
00:00:16,359 --> 00:00:17,559
Very happy that you're here with us.

6
00:00:17,559 --> 00:00:18,519
Speaker 2: Thank you for being with.

7
00:00:18,519 --> 00:00:20,600
Speaker 3: Us, Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

8
00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:25,079
Speaker 1: So tell our audience, give our audience sort of the

9
00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:29,480
inside scoop, if you will, about the American wine industry

10
00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,479
and what people might be say the most surprised to

11
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,600
learn about how wine is actually grown and bottled and

12
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:36,719
sold and all of that.

13
00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:40,079
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a lot of people think that when

14
00:00:40,119 --> 00:00:41,880
you think of a winery, you think of a vineyard

15
00:00:42,039 --> 00:00:44,560
on a winery and they grow the grapes and they

16
00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:46,799
make the wine and they sell to your doorstep. People

17
00:00:47,759 --> 00:00:50,640
kind of have this notion of the wine industry. But really,

18
00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:53,439
while there are some wineries like that it's pretty it

19
00:00:53,439 --> 00:00:56,600
can also be very fragmented where people just focus on

20
00:00:56,679 --> 00:01:00,880
growing other companies just focus on making wine, and others

21
00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:03,240
will be focused on kind of marketing and selling brands

22
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,159
and something that people don't know. And there's been quite

23
00:01:07,159 --> 00:01:08,959
a bit of press about this, at least within the

24
00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:13,799
industry is big wineries especially kind of use this approach

25
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,640
where they can import up to twenty five percent of

26
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,719
a blend of a bottle from South America, Australia, Europe

27
00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:26,319
and put it into a bottle that is labeled as

28
00:01:26,359 --> 00:01:30,840
if it's made in America. And when you add up

29
00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:36,319
all of that imported wine, it's roughly equal to the

30
00:01:36,359 --> 00:01:40,079
shortage that you know, I come up from a farming background,

31
00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:43,079
so I'm partial to the farming side of things, and

32
00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:45,920
if you add up what is imported, it is roughly

33
00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:49,480
equal to the shortage that the American farmers face. And

34
00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,200
so farmers are left dropping fruit on the ground, and

35
00:01:53,319 --> 00:01:56,280
yet a lot of the big wine companies are importing

36
00:01:56,319 --> 00:01:58,920
wine and it's you know, you look at this going

37
00:01:59,439 --> 00:02:02,560
this may be as a good case for tariffs to

38
00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:06,439
support the American industry. Yeah, so it's something that I

39
00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:11,120
think a lot of people don't realize and something I

40
00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:11,919
like to talk about.

41
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:13,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you about

42
00:02:13,879 --> 00:02:16,719
the US wines that contain all the imported juice. And

43
00:02:16,759 --> 00:02:20,800
then how do Americans know how they even navigate that?

44
00:02:20,879 --> 00:02:23,599
How do they even know how to to choose like

45
00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:24,599
American wine.

46
00:02:24,759 --> 00:02:27,199
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, it's like anything else, you really have

47
00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,080
to look into the company that you're buying from. If

48
00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:32,879
this is something you care about, then you know, take

49
00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:36,000
a closer look at the company itself. And if it's

50
00:02:36,039 --> 00:02:40,759
a multinational company or a very large winery, chances are

51
00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:44,080
they're running at a level where they would consider bringing

52
00:02:44,159 --> 00:02:46,879
in imports and they're looking very much at their bottom

53
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:52,560
line and margins, and you know they're more likely to

54
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:57,560
do that. Your smaller wineries, you know, they're less likely

55
00:02:57,639 --> 00:02:58,039
to do that.

56
00:02:58,439 --> 00:03:01,520
Speaker 1: So you mentioned that you know that this could be

57
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:04,639
a good case for tariff so and you mentioned also

58
00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:06,960
that you have a farming background. So what would a

59
00:03:07,159 --> 00:03:12,400
pro American, pro farmer tariff policy look like Exactly, one

60
00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,639
that would protect growers and wine makers like.

61
00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:19,879
Speaker 3: You, specifically to do with bulk wine imports. So, this

62
00:03:20,439 --> 00:03:23,360
wine has moved around, you know, before it's put into bottle,

63
00:03:23,439 --> 00:03:25,439
it's just sitting in large tanks. You could put it

64
00:03:25,479 --> 00:03:28,000
into tankers, you can move it around the world. And

65
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,319
so that's how bulk wine has moved around and imported

66
00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,240
into the country. And so I would support having tariffs

67
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,520
specifically on bulk wine coming in and not necessarily hurting

68
00:03:40,159 --> 00:03:42,879
you know, the producers that you know, French wine and

69
00:03:42,919 --> 00:03:46,319
Italian wine and Argentinian malbek and all these wines that

70
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,719
people love. There's a place for that, and I don't

71
00:03:50,719 --> 00:03:54,800
oppose having free trade there. But when we're bringing in

72
00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,039
bulk wine and then blending it into something that says

73
00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:00,960
it's American made, that's where, especially when it hurts the

74
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,680
American farmer. That's right. Go wait, you know, I think

75
00:04:03,719 --> 00:04:06,159
we can have a better policy here, and really it

76
00:04:06,199 --> 00:04:10,439
would be kind of better labeling laws, especially to do

77
00:04:10,759 --> 00:04:16,560
with imported fruit, and currently we have there are laws

78
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:19,639
at state at least seventy five percent of a blend

79
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,759
has to be made domestically in order to or from

80
00:04:22,759 --> 00:04:26,120
an appollation. If it's made in Napa, at least seventy

81
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,199
five percent of it has to come from Napa. Similarly,

82
00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,199
if you buy a bottle wine, this says California, seventy

83
00:04:32,199 --> 00:04:34,920
five percent has to come from California. But if we

84
00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,560
were to increase that or at least have a winery

85
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,360
call out, you know part of this is imported wine.

86
00:04:42,879 --> 00:04:46,199
I think the consumer just knowing that would would really help.

87
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,600
Speaker 2: Okay, So you. You are a wine guy, obviously, but

88
00:04:49,639 --> 00:04:54,199
you're also a patriotic a patriotic wine guy, as evidenced

89
00:04:54,199 --> 00:04:56,160
by your flag on the wall behind you and everything

90
00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,560
that you do. But we had we had an AHA

91
00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:00,600
moment when we started our company. Gosh, it was like

92
00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,600
almost sixteen years ago now, over chips and salsa right

93
00:05:03,639 --> 00:05:06,319
at a Mexican restaurant. When was your AHA moment to

94
00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:08,519
start your small business? And how did that happen?

95
00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:13,079
Speaker 3: Oh man, I remember exactly where I was. I was

96
00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:15,920
driving down the highway on my daily drive down to

97
00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,759
the vineyard, and I remember having this moment and it

98
00:05:19,879 --> 00:05:22,879
was born. It was actually born out of my father,

99
00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:25,879
who I learned from him. He spent a lifetime in

100
00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,560
the wine industry saying, whatever you do, Paul, never ever

101
00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:35,079
start a winery. Don't do it. Please, if you take

102
00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:37,759
any advice for me my entire life in this industry,

103
00:05:37,879 --> 00:05:40,519
don't start a winery in defiance.

104
00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:42,079
Speaker 2: It's defiance, that's what it is.

105
00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,480
Speaker 3: It's part of my nature. But I actually took all

106
00:05:45,519 --> 00:05:48,600
of his cautionary tales of why you don't do it,

107
00:05:49,439 --> 00:05:51,600
and there's a lot of reasons. But if you go

108
00:05:51,639 --> 00:05:53,800
into try and sell through grocery stores. You're competing with

109
00:05:53,879 --> 00:05:57,240
Gallo and Constellation who own the shelf space, so you'll

110
00:05:57,279 --> 00:05:59,879
never compete there, right, And if you try and stay

111
00:05:59,879 --> 00:06:02,199
small and do a little tasting room and NAPA, then

112
00:06:02,199 --> 00:06:06,240
you're one of hundreds of wineries competing for foot traffic,

113
00:06:06,399 --> 00:06:08,839
and that is an uphill battle as well. What he

114
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:13,240
hadn't considered was kind of having a virtual winery that

115
00:06:13,319 --> 00:06:21,199
lives online and it's focused around people and their passion

116
00:06:21,879 --> 00:06:25,240
and it's it's something that's so that you could really

117
00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:30,480
only do online because I mean, sure there's people locally passionate,

118
00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:32,680
but that's a very small group of people. But once

119
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,480
you go, you know, out into the world and broadcast,

120
00:06:35,959 --> 00:06:41,120
you can find really, you know, patriotic people who love

121
00:06:41,199 --> 00:06:45,759
this country, who want to buy products that reflect their values. Yes,

122
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,959
And when I looked around because I was I was,

123
00:06:49,319 --> 00:06:51,240
I wanted to start a winery. I wanted to do this,

124
00:06:51,959 --> 00:06:56,000
and I thought, almost every winery you think of is

125
00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,560
all about themselves. It's about the vineyard they come from,

126
00:06:58,639 --> 00:07:01,680
the pedigree, the wine maker, you know, the person's name

127
00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,279
who's on the bottle, and how great they are. It's

128
00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:07,319
all about that. And I wanted to start something that

129
00:07:07,519 --> 00:07:13,600
was about something that people were passionate about. And you know,

130
00:07:13,639 --> 00:07:18,000
I'm very passionate about politics and conservative politics. People think

131
00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,319
California is all blue, and if you were to actually

132
00:07:21,319 --> 00:07:24,519
look at the state, like it is a huge agricultural

133
00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,639
state and those communities are quite conservative.

134
00:07:27,759 --> 00:07:30,240
Speaker 2: You're so right, you are right about that.

135
00:07:30,519 --> 00:07:32,800
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and we've go ahead.

136
00:07:33,639 --> 00:07:35,680
Speaker 3: No, I've got a campaign I'm going to come out

137
00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:39,079
with next year that is the heart of California bleeds

138
00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:43,279
rad and it is yeah, and it is especially going

139
00:07:43,319 --> 00:07:45,279
into the midterms, and I really want to have a

140
00:07:45,319 --> 00:07:49,160
splash here in California and just bring attention to the

141
00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,759
fact that we're not all a bunch of you know,

142
00:07:53,279 --> 00:07:57,720
liberal wag chops. Yeah, And that was actually the reason

143
00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,319
my initial reason for starting the Winery was because I

144
00:08:01,439 --> 00:08:04,920
was so sick of the narrative of the media portraying

145
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,519
us as what I call heartless bigots. They're all a

146
00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:12,160
bunch of heartless bigots, yeap. And my experience with conservatives

147
00:08:12,319 --> 00:08:17,240
is just so different, like the biggest hearts you can imagine, yep.

148
00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:19,360
Just we just don't want to rely on the government

149
00:08:19,399 --> 00:08:22,399
to solve our problems. We'd rather band together and solve

150
00:08:22,439 --> 00:08:23,199
things ourselves.

151
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:24,480
Speaker 2: That's our community too.

152
00:08:24,759 --> 00:08:25,639
Speaker 3: We totally get.

153
00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,639
Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, well and we've loved that. So much of

154
00:08:28,639 --> 00:08:31,959
the messaging around your brand has been about how wine

155
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:37,600
is meant to inspire conversations, that you drink it when

156
00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,279
you're in the company of loved ones or friends or

157
00:08:40,279 --> 00:08:43,559
family or whatever and so and we get that because

158
00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,120
so much. I mean, one of our most watched videos

159
00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:50,159
ever was when we were drinking wine and having some

160
00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,480
and enjoying it during a debate night or an election night,

161
00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:56,440
during a live stream like this was, you know, a

162
00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,639
couple of years ago. But that is when you think

163
00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:04,480
about drinking and socializing with friends. It's all about conversations.

164
00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:08,200
I'm curious to know if you've gotten feedback because that's

165
00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,159
been part of your branding. Have you gotten any good

166
00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:15,080
stories from people who have had that had your wine

167
00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,200
on the table and it has started conversations and can

168
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:19,279
you tell us about those?

169
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:24,320
Speaker 3: Oh? Man, I mean it's countless people, everything from I

170
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,159
give to this to my liberal aunt as kind of

171
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,519
as like as a little bit of a jab because

172
00:09:30,519 --> 00:09:34,799
they're you know, and you know, and it's actually ends

173
00:09:34,879 --> 00:09:38,720
up sparking a conversation where you actually make some headway

174
00:09:38,799 --> 00:09:41,240
or you start to kind of understand each other a

175
00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:44,000
little bit more. I hear it all the time. And

176
00:09:44,039 --> 00:09:50,000
it's even within you know, conservatives, we have I have this,

177
00:09:50,799 --> 00:09:52,519
you know, it's kind of a play on the wine,

178
00:09:52,519 --> 00:09:57,000
but we call it shades of Red, where even within

179
00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:01,279
our own party, there are certainly things that unite us,

180
00:10:01,399 --> 00:10:05,279
you know, the big themes, right, but how we get there,

181
00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:07,639
how we want to achieve those goals. There's a lot

182
00:10:07,639 --> 00:10:10,960
of different opinions, and that's great. That's the whole point

183
00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,759
of a democracy is having different opinions and the best

184
00:10:14,879 --> 00:10:18,320
ones rise to the top. And the only way you

185
00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:21,039
know what the best ones are is through discourse. This

186
00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:25,440
through conversation is through sitting around with a glass of wine,

187
00:10:25,679 --> 00:10:29,799
you know, not taking shots and you know, just sitting

188
00:10:29,799 --> 00:10:32,799
around civilly with a glass of wine and some food

189
00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:35,480
around the dinner table or the porch or wherever you

190
00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:39,639
have and just talk and and be civil.

191
00:10:40,159 --> 00:10:42,200
Speaker 1: And you can't get mad at somebody who'd forgiven you

192
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:45,480
a gift, right like that, if you want a door opener, Like,

193
00:10:45,519 --> 00:10:49,360
if you're gifting someone, how can they get mad? Right?

194
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, We've had I've had people contact me saying, you know,

195
00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:56,360
there was it was given to our liberal it was

196
00:10:56,399 --> 00:10:58,600
given to them as a gift. They soaked the label off.

197
00:10:58,639 --> 00:11:00,799
They were it was so offended to buy it. They

198
00:11:00,879 --> 00:11:04,320
soaked the wine God and then poured the wine and

199
00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:09,080
was like, it's actually really good wine. The wine.

200
00:11:09,279 --> 00:11:10,679
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so.

201
00:11:10,639 --> 00:11:14,559
Speaker 3: Don't waste the wine. But even there, you know, it's

202
00:11:15,399 --> 00:11:18,399
I've had so much fun with this project and so

203
00:11:18,519 --> 00:11:21,879
many people. I mean, we work with conservative organizations. They

204
00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:26,320
use it for fundraising, they use it their events. It's

205
00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:29,320
just it's been a really fun project. And we have

206
00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,080
a whole new phase of our of our company coming

207
00:11:32,159 --> 00:11:35,759
up that exciting. A huge success over this last election,

208
00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,080
and I've taken some of that success and reinvested it

209
00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:42,759
into the business and we're really doubling down on creating

210
00:11:42,759 --> 00:11:49,480
community and doing more things like live tastings and going

211
00:11:49,519 --> 00:11:52,240
to be going around the country with events and doing

212
00:11:52,279 --> 00:11:56,039
different things. So it's an exciting time for us.

213
00:11:56,279 --> 00:11:59,759
Speaker 1: That is awesome. Well, we've loved having a chance to

214
00:11:59,799 --> 00:12:02,159
talk about your wine and your company to our audience,

215
00:12:02,639 --> 00:12:04,919
and we've made sure that they know if they would

216
00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:06,759
like to check it out, they can go to Republican

217
00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:09,639
Red dot com and I know right now there's a

218
00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:11,879
special offer for our audience where they can get the

219
00:12:11,879 --> 00:12:14,919
Patriots Starter Pack, which is the four bottles of wine

220
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,039
right ten percent off and free shipping when they use

221
00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:20,919
the code Chicks at Republican Read dot com, do you

222
00:12:20,919 --> 00:12:23,879
have anything you'd like to share about what's included in

223
00:12:23,919 --> 00:12:24,879
that Patriot Pack.

224
00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's kind of it's our best sellers. So

225
00:12:28,639 --> 00:12:32,799
we've got our Chardonnay, pino noir cabernet in a sparkling wine.

226
00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,519
So people think Republican Read you must be all red wine. No,

227
00:12:36,799 --> 00:12:41,120
we have white wine too. We just figured we couldn't

228
00:12:41,159 --> 00:12:48,960
call it Republican wine community. So we had a had

229
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:51,480
an internal joke and I knew it wasn't going to

230
00:12:51,559 --> 00:12:53,720
work well, but it was going to the campaign was

231
00:12:53,759 --> 00:12:56,399
going to be Taste the Privilege, and.

232
00:12:58,000 --> 00:12:58,600
Speaker 2: I love it.

233
00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,559
Speaker 3: Just you know, that's that edgy side of me that

234
00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:04,200
wants to kind of poke the bear a little bit.

235
00:13:04,279 --> 00:13:07,759
But I decided better better judgment, let's not do that.

236
00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:11,639
And so everything is Republican Read. And but we have

237
00:13:11,679 --> 00:13:15,200
a you know, Chardonay, a sparkling wine, which is it's

238
00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:19,080
so delicious, and then pino and CAB and then we

239
00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:22,399
have special addition labels, and we're constantly coming out with

240
00:13:22,519 --> 00:13:26,000
new things because they're conversational pieces, and so we're every

241
00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:29,240
you know, you join our wine club, every shipment you'll

242
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,879
get kind of a new set of conversation pieces. You know,

243
00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,440
the consistent, great quality wine.

244
00:13:35,879 --> 00:13:38,000
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Well, it's been great to talk to you

245
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,879
more about the business, the brand, the wine itself. We

246
00:13:40,919 --> 00:13:42,080
appreciate you being here.

247
00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:44,759
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I really really appreciate it being

248
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:48,840
Thank you