But based on a wine tasting I conducted at a local cat cafe-slash-adoption center, the products are primarily catnip for the owners: The shelter cats did not like wines from either company — only two of them indulged —
but the people visiting the tastings loved the concept.
Pet lovers are buying “high-cost collars, and premium bedding and other human-based rewards.”
Sarah Davidian, 34, a veterinary technician who was visiting the cat cafe, said she had read mixed reviews online for cat wines,
but could not resist buying Pet Winery’s Purrgandy for a dinner party to celebrate her friend’s one-year anniversary with her cat, Jimmy.
But already the company that brought its products to market first, Apollo Peak — which calls itself
“the original cat winery” — is accusing its newer competitor, Pet Winery, of being a copycat.
David Grimm, a deputy news editor at the journal Science
and the author of “Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs,” said the increasing closeness between humans and pets began in the early 1900s, when flea products allowed people to bring dogs indoors, and kitty litter did the same for cats.
It all started two years ago when Brandon Zavala, the chief executive of Apollo Peak, “spawned the idea of wine for cats out of nowhere,” he said.
“Why are we just feeding them water?”
Mr. Zavala, 32, used to sell pet food products and has been learning more about the business through his start-up.
Nevertheless, the cat lovers — even after seeing that the animals did not like the wines — were smitten with the products.