Pet Reserve Wines keeps bartender’s love of animals alive
Hunter Kottke was a popular bartender and general manager for different Milwaukee bars and venues for years, and his untimely death shook those who knew him. But now his memory, and his eagerness to offer help, lives on through Pet Reserve Wines.
Before Kottke died, he partnered with friend and fellow bartender Lauren Waite to create a wine company. After a few ideas failed to get off the ground, the partners struggled to come up with a concept.
During that time Waite’s cat ran away and helped spark the idea that would become Pet Reserve Wines.
Waite said her cat was missing for 10 days, then found, and she took it to the vet and learned that the cat was severethings ly dehydrated. While she was in the waiting room, Waite saw a woman crying because she couldn’t afford the surgery necessary for her dog.
“Her dog had gotten injured and she couldn’t afford the veterinary care,” Waite said. “I started crying too.”
The idea emerged to use profits from the wine to help animals and shelters in need. Waite pitched the idea to Kottke, who was all for it.
“He loved the idea because he helped a lot of rescue (dogs) too,” Waite said.
Kottke’s love of animals started when he was a child. His sister Kelleen Lomenzo remembers when they were younger looking for insects and snakes underneath logs and rocks.
Throughout their childhood, Lomenzo said, they accumulated different pets and Kottke would take care of them.
“Hunter would know all of these about how to care for these animals,” Lomenzo said. “He would know the temperatures of the habitats and how often they would need to eat and what they need to eat.”
But when Kottke died in a car crash in May, the future of the wine company was put in jeopardy.
“After Hunter was gone, I didn’t know how I was going to do it because he had all of the contacts, he had a lot more stuff for the distributor set up and I didn’t,” Waite said. “I was very stressed out in the beginning. We were still picking out the material of the label. Who’s going to make the label? Where are we going to get the glass bottles from?”
Kottke’s friend Aaron Ohlsson, coowner of Site 1A, wanted to help “keep
his dream alive” and got Waite in contact with a distributor.
“Legends never die,” Ohlsson said. “And I think this wine reflects Hunter’s go-getter attitude ... the wine is a way to keep Hunter’s legacy alive, and I think that gives a lot of people comfort and also joy in knowing that he’d be so stoked to see where the project has gone.”
Without Kottke, Waite said, she contemplated every decision, hoping the company was moving in the right direction.
But when Waite saw the 3,000 labels that were going to be put on her wine bottles, it felt like a “unreal dream.”
“They were perfect. They were everything that I wanted.” Waite said. “I couldn’t believe that it was happening. It’s been such a long process and there’s been so many ups and downs during this process . ... Hunter would be so proud to see this.”
Ohlsson said Kottke’s love for animals “showcases the kind of person he was.”
“Losing Hunter was so hard, and he was so excited about this project and talked about it all the time,” Ohlsson said. “I wasn’t even sure it was real for a while, it’s been going on for so long. And to see it come to fruition and to see it come alive is awesome.”
But Pet Reserve Wines is planning to do more than soothe the palates of wine enthusiasts.
Once the company begins to earn a profit, Waite said, between 10% and 20% of profits every bottle sold will go to local animal shelters and organizations.
“The wine will help locally, wherever I sell it,” Waite said. “So that the people that are buying that wine make an impact in their own area.”
“It’s him from the other side playing his role to help the animals,” Waite said of Kottke’s spirit.
Waite has done two fundraisers with her wine, raising $1,440 for Rescuegang, which helps dogs, and Sip & Purr, which helps cats. The wine is being made at Minhas Winery in Monroe and is being sold in Woodman grocery stores in Oak Creek and Madison; Hy-Vee in Madison and Fitchburg; and WineStyles in Sun Prairie.
It’s also being sold at local venues Site, Lucky Ginger and Revel Bar, all in Milwaukee.
Waite plans to do a Pet Reserve TV series online, and the first video will be about how to bring a dog home from a shelter and help it get used to your house.
Kottke’s death surprised everyone, but Lomenzo said seeing the wine gives her and her family closure knowing it will help needy animals.
“I feel comforted knowing he’ll never die in that way,” Lomenzo said. “He’ll live on through that wine. And whether somebody picks up a bottle and don’t know what they’re getting, and they just wanted some wine, his spirit will live on, and that makes me so proud.”
When Kottke died, he had one Alaskan Husky dog named Hurley. Lomenzo is now taking care of Hurley.