BevNET's Cocktail Showdown 2 - Red Saint

Speaker 1 [00:04] All right. Up next, we have Gianni Otane who is the founder of Red Saint. Come on up.

Speaker 2 [00:13] All right. Uh, I'm super excited to be here today. Uh, I feel like in, in many ways, this is my life journey has really brought me here, uh, on the stage today to tell a little bit about my story and this brand. Um, you know, I grew up in the restaurant business under the guidance of my father, uh, and now co-founder. When I was 18, I moved to New York City. Uh, really chasing what you would consider sort of the major league of hospitality in our industry. And while I was out there, I was lucky enough to position myself under, uh, the mentorship of multiple master sommeliers. Uh, and at 19, I found myself traveling the world studying and really training my palate, uh, around the greatest, uh, wine and spirits, uh, in the industry, um. And so, uh, that actually led me on a path to, uh, pass my level 2, Smole examination, uh, the youngest in the country, if you will, just a month after my 21st birthday. And I tell you this because I think it's important to understand the perspective I'm bringing with this brand and that Red Saint really represents sort of. Uh, a passion and a deeper foundational ethos I have, not only around wine and spirits, but really the entire, uh, culture and tradition around social drinking as a whole. You see, for a millennia, we've really only had three ways to consume alcohol, and that was wine at around 11 to 18% ABV, Spirits at the high end, around 40%. And that really only left beer for your low alcohol option for 4 to 9% ABV. And that is until about 2016 with the onset of hard seltzer. And as that kind of quickly gained wide adoption, uh, I think a lot of brands didn't take a second to step back and understand sort of the macro of what that really meant. And, and, and it's our belief that, in fact, hard seltzer really opened up the, was the genesis for 1/4 category in hard beverage, if you will. And within this category, we're actually going to see multiple customer segments and layers of hierarchy. And so with that, uh, we developed Red Saint. Red Saints based off a ten-year thesis and how we envision this category sort of evolving over the years ahead. Um, And with that, we really identified four core attributes that we think have driven the category thus far and we'll continue to sort of frame the category as it evolves. First and foremost, we think low alcohol is key here, right, right around 4 to 9% ABV. This is really to sort of not like replace beer, if you will. Secondly, we think we're refreshing flavor profile is super key. So sort of that summer sipper patio pounder, if you will. Uh, third is sessionability. And this really sort of, uh, piggybacks on one and two attributes. And this is the idea of a product you can have 45 or 6 of them in a single sitting. And then lastly is ready to drink, which is, uh, both in the liquid and the packaging, we think will continue to be key as this category evolves. So the idea was, how do we create a a brand and a product that, that really establishes a competitive hierarchy within the category. You're really taking my expertise in flavor and ingredients to establish and really pull in, uh, an, a customer that was left behind during the hard seltzer craze. I like to call these folks really the Equinox Airw crowd, if you will. High minded, uh, individuals that choose the sport, uh, really sort of products of high quality transparency and at the end of the day high moral cause, you know, they have disposable income and they're really looking to seek sort of status and aspiration from their brands. Uh, the product itself starts from a herbal tea base we're sourcing from the high mountains of southern Africa, Rooibos and honeybush. We're then blending in, uh, real fruit purees and botanicals with the idea to kind of create a flavor profile that has complexity and nuance, while still maintaining those two core attributes we talked about earlier, which is really a refreshing and sessionable profile. From there, we're bringing in functionality into the category with an organic green tea extract. Uh, that delivers 30 mg of naturally occurring caffeine in the form of L-theanine. Uh, the idea here is to sort of stimulate conversation, bring electricity to the buzz, and again, harking back to our brand promise, which is really about the pleasure and connection that social drinking is all about. Now, I'm not naive to sort of my, uh, my young age or my inexperience as a founder, and that's really why I've surrounded myself with a group of advisors that are really the top performers in this industry, uh, who not only believe in our product, but really the, the greater mission ahead. Uh, we launched 60 days ago here in Southern California with Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits as a distribution partner. And our go to market strategy has really been focused on hyper-saturating key affluent zip codes here in Los Angeles, uh, and, and really focus, focusing at like high-end natural specialty accounts across channels, really trying to get, uh, discovery and organic adoption from our target audience. Here's a few of our early wins right off the bat. And then, um, go back and then, uh, really our marketing strategy thus far has all been about supporting these accounts, interacting with, uh, with the consumers and, and sort of getting as much intel and feedback as possible through merchandizing, sampling events, etc. so we can really kind of head into 2022 with greater understanding and intel, uh, to make, you know, better decisions in the day ahead. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [05:11] Well done, Carlton, uh, you get the first word. Hey, you pull that right out of your pocket. That's a good place to put it actually. I like that.

Speaker 3 [05:16] It's got it right there. Keep that thing on me. Um, I wish I had like a half an hour to ask you some questions because there's, there's a lot of interesting things to unpack here, um, starting with, you know, the, the liquid was incredibly complex and I could definitely tell the, the background you have and, and flavor and some. Um, when I, when I look at who you're going after that Aaron, you know, um, what do you call it,

Speaker 2 [05:39] the

Speaker 3 [05:40] Equinox, Aeronon-Equinox consumer, you know, how are you, how, how is the plan to, to move them into the, the frequent repeat and, and the multiple session ability that, that requires that, that's necessary to make, you know, you know, a 4 to 9%. You know, a product like this turn quickly because you, you, you, you really need the sessionability and the, and the, and the, the, the willingness of your consumer to sit down and drink a six pack of this.

Speaker 2 [06:03] Yeah, absolutely. I think it comes down to use case. I mean this really came as a sommelier. I was always drinking wine, but there's Use cases where you just want something that's easy sipping, if you will, you know, sort of that patio pounder I talked about. So I think it's understanding what is that use case, whether it's by the pool or with a sunset or whatever that is, and, and sort of showing them that this category does have something to offer them, um, and we, we deliver a product for them that kind of lives up to their, you know, expectations.

Speaker 1 [06:30] What's the price point?

Speaker 2 [06:31] Uh, it's around 22.99 a six pack.

Speaker 1 [06:35] Uh, Tiffany, what do you think of the go to market strategy as outlined by Johnny?

Speaker 4 [06:41] The go to market strategy, it's perfect because you got a little on, got a little off. So as it takes off, you can push or pull depending on, uh, what's seeming to, to go well, uh, for you. I think, um, when I think about the commercial viability in the off-premise, um, the packaging is beautiful, the can. I would. If, if you don't mind me giving a bit of a recommendation just on shelf, um, at shelf it's hard to know what original is, um, when you pass by it, um, 6 is a lot to ask when you're starting starting out. 4 is a viable option, right? If you got 4, I can do 46 or 8, tougher. And then the packaging looks like it's a red wine based product. I would for me it's so beautiful it just that color tells me there's red wine in there and I know it says red. I get that, but it's burgundy color even it's not even like a bright red, so I know your background and so I'm sitting there there's so many things that are so wonderful about it, um, just consider the product inside and make sure it's, um, congruent with, uh, the packaging of it, um, but it's, uh, it is beautiful.

Speaker 2 [07:53] Thank you.

Speaker 1 [07:54] Yeah, let's stay with the packaging for a second. Said, um, you know, were you enticed to drink this product from the packaging, and when you did drink it, what do you think of the liquid?

Speaker 5 [08:02] Uh, I do have a question, uh, before diving into that. Uh, you said alcohol. How do you define alcohol?

Speaker 2 [08:09] Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, going after the hard seltzer craze, you know, the malt flavored beverages. And even a lot of the fermented teas, when you, when you taste the beverage, they have this sort of harsh after finish. And we use a distilled spirit very intentionally because we thought it had a very clean alcohol finish. And in fact, this beverage to me was about the tea profile and the fruit flavors and not about the alcohol itself. So it's really easy to mask that in a distilled spirit.

Speaker 5 [08:32] That is exactly what I got when I was drinking. I was like, if, if, uh, for someone who does have an appreciation. Appreciation for teas and stuff like that. Uh, the one flavor that I definitely was going back to was the original with the vanilla. I felt like the peach and ginger was like, I wanted more peach. I feel like the like, especially when you're working with ginger, it can kind of overpower sometimes. Uh, the, what was it, the straw, is the strawberry basil one that you have one too. That was the sec, that one came in 2 for me, but, uh, I feel like. If I'm looking at this and I'm, I, cause you know, some, yeah, like like you said, like, some of these brands have uh they, they say what alcohol it is. I don't know if I'd be like, I don't know what's in this. I wanna, I wanna know what the, the, the kind of alcohol that I'm drinking.

Speaker 2 [09:15] Yeah, for sure. I think part of it was understanding that if you say vodka or whiskey or rum, like those are loaded words when a consumer already has an opinion on that, and I really wanted to separate ourselves from that to get them to try first, and that was sort of the thought process. Got it, Sebastian,

Speaker 1 [09:29] we're pretty much out of time, but did you get the last word on Red Saint.

Speaker 6 [09:32] Um, yeah, I'm. Great packaging. Very interesting concept. So you're at Nobu on the menu. Where are you on the menu and what does it

Speaker 2 [09:41] say? Uh, not Nobu.

Speaker 6 [09:43] Well, OK, well, any restaurant, any restaurant, the restaurant menu.

Speaker 2 [09:46] So one of our top accounts right now is Petite Hermitage. It's a private club in West Hollywood. Uh, they're selling us by the can, but we're also finding it's a great canvas to build a cocktail off of. So we're on a few cocktails as well.

Speaker 1 [09:57] All right, well done. Thank you so much. Thank you.