Pinot Meow And MosCATo: Wines For Cats Hit The U.S. Market


It’s Friday evening, and as you curl up on your sofa in order to enjoy a glass of wine, Fluffy slinks out of hiding and looks at you with longing and you think, naturally, “I wish I could share this glass of wine with my cat,” but you don’t, because alcohol is poisonous to your feline friend.

If this is you, then it’s time to break out another bottle of wine to celebrate. Boasting labels such as Pinot Meow and MosCATo, a Denver-based company named Apollo Peak is now selling wine for cats, the Huffington Post reports.

Of course, it’s not actually wine, since alcohol really is poisonous for your cat, but the drink certainly looks like wine. In Pinot Meow and MosCATo, the cat wine is made with organic catnip and water that has been colored with organic beet juice. The “white wine” varieties are colored with organic beet juice from golden beets, in order to impart that particular golden hue.

The non-alcoholic cat wine is made like a tea, says Apollo Peak founder Brandon Zavala, who named his company after one of his cats.

“But since we got it to look so much like a wine, we want it to be perceived as a wine by the consumer — that way they can feel as though they are having a glass of wine with their pet,” he explained.

That seems reasonable.

Apollo Peak started to make the cat wine commercially in November, but the whole idea started as a joke, Zavala says.

“It’s kind of a weird story. It started out as a joke, slapping a label on a regular wine bottle,” he explained, but then he realized that there might actually be some people who really would like to share a glass of wine with their feline companions.

Who wouldn’t?

Zavala began his research and found, surprisingly, that such a product already existed. The non-alcoholic cat wine is called Nyan Nyan Nouveau, and actually became a viral news sensation but, Zavala explained, there were a few complications with that cat wine. First of all, it is available only in Japan and secondly, that cat wine is made from actual grapes, which may taste more wine-like but can actually be toxic to cats.

However, the ASPCA lists beets as being non-toxic for cats, and Zavala says his cat wine is approved by local veterinarians.

“They’re totally cool with it,” he said. “They love it.”

However, before allowing your own cat to imbibe, you may want to check with your own veterinarian, just to be safe, especially if your cat has any preexisting health problems.

“Beet juice is not toxic to kitties (or dogs for that matter), but as always check with your vet before giving something like this,” veterinarian Katy Nelson of The Pet Show says. “Beet juice has been known to change the color of urine, so especially for diabetic cats or kitties with urinary problems that you monitor their urine, it could cause false positives on their tests.”

And even with all this precaution, your cat still may not want to cozy up to share a glass of wine with you, even with a name like Pinot Meow or MosCATo. Some cats simply don’t react to catnip, which is the “active” ingredient that makes this cat wine so appealing for some cats. If your cat is one of those who don’t respond to catnip, chances are, sipping on beet juice may not be his or her cup of tea — or glass of wine.

Apollo Peak cat wine is already available at some stores locally in Colorado — and online. Zavala added they’d be at CatConLA later this month.

What do you think? Would you purchase cat wine as a treat for your own feline friend — or know someone who would?

[Image via Shutterstock]

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