3rd Bottle: The Wine Cooler Built for Wine, Not Beer Pt. 1-5

0:00 Welcome, welcome to the best five minute wine podcast with Forrest Kelly.

0:17 Hi, I'm Janine Lum, founder of Third Bottle. What is the third bottle as opposed to the first second? Let's clarify that a little bit. So most wine drinkers understand when you get to the third bottle, if you've been on a roll with bottle one and bottle two, whether you're with one person or several friends enjoying bottles, when you get to the third bottle, you really should not be opening up that Chateau Margot. And there's been a couple of times where me and my friends have woke up the next morning and realized we opened up a really expensive bottle and we didn't finish it.

0:53 We didn't store it correctly. So it's always been an inside joke with my family and friends about the third bottle. And I always said if I ever had a company, I would name it Third Bottle. So the name came way before the company and the business. And it just kind of stuck, even though it's not relatable at all. Your logo is circular. And then you've got Third Bottle on the top half and then a corkscrew in the middle and then on the bottom for the love of wine. So I can hear a lot of love for wine already in your product that you've got.

1:26 And you're not going to tell us what it is, but you've got a little introduction to introduce us to the product. So maybe we can let the listeners guess what it is. Are you going to read this in a theatrical Sean Connery kind of way? Or are you just going to go for it? I was born because something precious kept getting ruined on the way home. I don't make anything. I don't fix anything. My only job is to stop time, to hold everything inside me exactly as it was the moment you zipped me shut. My heart is frozen, literally, and it locks together like a puzzle, wrapping my cargo on every side.

2:05 I've been to beaches, boats, tailgates, and long stretches of desert highway. People throw me over their shoulder and trust me with hundreds of dollars of cargo. I'm the bodyguard of something that took years to create and minutes to destroy. What am I? So there's some key words in there. Frozen, so I'm guessing there's chill, there's a bag involved. It's something more than the cooler bag that you get at Trader Joe's or Costco, I'm guessing. It is more of an Arctic chamber. You can consider it a transportable cellar, and we offer cellular protection everywhere we go.

2:44 So we know how critical, you know, with wine fridges, wine cellars, to keep the temperature of wine at a certain temperature. And it's so critical. But let's jump into your journey. So what did you do to prove this idea that how critical it is? This isn't something I set out to do. This came to me by my own mistakes. The first incident happened in Paso Robles. I had been wine tasting, purchased some bottles, and somehow in the dark vehicle, one of the bottles got missed and left in the car. And the next day when I opened the car door, a distinct aroma of cooked alcohol overwhelms me.

3:30 And it hit me that I had left a bottle in the car. Cork had pushed out of the bottle due to the heat. After that trip, I didn't think more about it other than be more diligent when emptying my vehicle after collecting my bottles of wine from wineries or wine shops. Fast forward a year later, we were on a road trip and in a windy road, a cardboard box full of approximately $1,400 worth of wine tipped over. And that's when the journey started that I realized I needed a secure vessel to at least contain my wine during travel.

4:10 The first experience there in Paso Robles, that's not extreme temperatures there. You're not getting 150 degrees, you know, Palm Springs or some heat, intense heat temperatures inside the vehicle. That was pretty mild and yet it still happened, right? correct and the cork still found its way out from the heat and the pressure so i quickly learned that wine does not like heat and when i started diving deep into the study of wine while getting my w set certifications 75 starts to really upset wine and 75 is a very comfortable temperature Oh, yeah.

4:51 The Garden of Eden was supposedly between 72 and 74, the perfect temperature. So 75. Yeah, that's pretty petite. Correct. So right after the Garden of Eden, wine takes a big old leap out of not enjoying life. You said, I see a problem here. I need something. Let me go look for it. I did. And I started buying everything. And thank goodness for that online shopping center, because I ordered bags as cheap as $50 all the way up to $2,000. Some were beautiful, some were canvas, some were hard cased. And what I quickly discovered is they were all the same.

5:34 From the least expensive to the most expensive, they did one thing. They carried bottles of wine. Not one wine bag protected the wine. In that moment, I had received something in the mail, some chocolates from a friend, and it had an ice pack in it. And I realized this is what we need. We need to take the cardboard grid box system that wine is shipped in, and we need to create these into ice packs to make a cooling chamber that would actually protect what I actually purchased. I'm not purchasing a bottle of glass.

6:12 I'm purchasing the liquid, the moments, the memories and the fun and the joy I get with sharing wine with my friends and my family. And I wanted to protect that. And I love to travel. I was a part time flight attendant for 10 years. Everywhere I go, everybody knows I'm going to be the one showing up with wine. And I want to make sure when I show up that the wine is not corked or heat damaged, because that did happen one time when I came home from Spain. I brought home a precious bottle, thought I did my best to protect it.

6:47 But again, back then I was shoving it in my suitcase and hoping that the glass wouldn't break. Never once did I think about the heat until I was forced into a situation. OK, so now you've figured out the design idea and what you need to do. let jump into the prototypes and that kind of thing So when I first started making the prototypes the project manager that the company I was using at the time he didn even drink Never drank a day in his life That created a little bit of a hurdle. And me trying to explain to somebody the precious value of this liquid grape juice I'm trying to protect was just not resonating with him.

7:29 But he took my idea, he made some designs, and the designs were failing and he would recreate a design without talking to me and recreate the molds. And this started to become very expensive because every time he would redesign and recreate and remold, he charged me for a mold. And that was not fun. That got to a point after a year and several molds, I almost threw in the towel. I was over it. I was done. I was upset. And even being in law enforcement for 20 years, I have never cried this many tears as I did in the first year of this design.

8:07 So I found another manufacturer and they were great. And every time we had a design, a redesign, they didn't charge me. They were apologetic that their engineer didn't come up with a better suggestion, that I was coming up with better suggestions. So that made me feel good. So we only went through three mold remodels with the second manufacturer. But it only cost me one time, which was nice. And in between all this, I also had hired a patent attorney because I knew it was on to something. And the patent attorney, the first one shot me down.

8:44 The second he saw it, he said, it's a conflict of interest with another client. And I said, there's no way you even read my email. There's no way you even read this email. So I found a second attorney. She was great. She loved the product. She loved the idea. She did all the things. but she started missing dates and deadlines. So that was a problem. So my third attorney did not drink as well. I seem to attract people that don't drink wine or alcohol as I'm trying to design this wine product and make the wine world a better place for wine.

9:17 But he saw the vision and he has been amazing. And we have our design and utility patent in place. And we have our two trademarks that are now both registered. So that has been also a little journey in between the design element. What was the main thing that you were, that you're going for besides the carrying parts, the keeping it chilled and protected? Is there something about it that's like, okay, this is the part that you go, oh yeah, I get it now. It's the interlocking ice pack systems. My husband and I used to own a boat and we currently still own an RV.

9:59 So we have small refrigerators and freezers. So I needed these ice packs to only serve a purpose for a long period of time by chilling the wine. I also need them compactable to be able to fit inside a freezer. You would need a deep freezer if you had the grid system all put together to freeze the water. So I needed these interchangeable interlocking and modular because I also wanted to accommodate for food items, storage items and other things that you could put in a cooler bag besides just the wine.

10:36 And these cooler, the ice packs are also interchangeable to other coolers and cooler systems as long as you accommodate the height issue. Most coolers on the market, they're about the beers and the bros, and they forgot about the wine. A lot of the coolers on the market are not tall enough. The ice packs, they serve multiple purposes in the bag, right? Yes. Like I said, their grid system, they freeze, and then they slide together to create the grid system. So if you were to use the 12-pack ice packs, you could remove one of the pieces of the grid system and slide it to the other side of the bag to accommodate containers of food and charcuterie items or whatever else you needed to keep cold or chilled during transport.

11:29 It's just a regular soft-sided cooler bag that's tall enough. It's about 16 and a half inches tall to hold the bags. This way, I did want to make a collapsible one for better storage for boats and RVs, but that idea was not going to work. It just was not going to be able to hold the temperature of the ice packs to remain chilled for a long period of time. So that's where some of my stubbornness had to give up and listen to an actual engineer who knew what he was talking about. So you had to give that up.

12:02 But so the goal was to achieve a certain time frame, at least X amount of hours that you wanted to keep the temperature optimum. Correct. I would have liked to have kept them chilled for at least 12 to 15 hours. We have a second home in Albuquerque. So we drive through the desert heat a lot. And I love black vehicles. So my cars are always dark to begin with. So there's another element to put heat against wine. And when the whole product came together with the engineers and my ideas and the development of the cooler bag and the ice packs, the 12 pack will actually hold for up to 24 hours and longer.

12:46 And the six pack bag is for quick trips, picnics at the park, concerts in the park, day trips to the beach, whatever. And the six pack will hold up to six to eight hours as long as you have good lid integrity, meaning you keep the things zipped up. It'll keep the heat out. So but those aren't for long travel as much as I have tested the 12 pack in the back of my truck with a cover to create a complete heat entrapment. entrapment. The wine stayed chilled for a 12-hour drive from Orange County, California to Albuquerque.

13:29 Beautiful drive. They've drive many times. When you're putting this product together, isn't it amazing how many people come out of the woodwork and try to suggest ideas and things of, oh, did you think about this? And it's like, oh my gosh, you're playing checkers and I'm playing chess year a hundred percent and not only people have great ideas and suggestions i said then why aren't you up at three o'clock in the morning talking to the manufacturer doing this because i was over everybody being a genius all of a sudden and wanting to make corrections and changes and i'm like did you not think i might have thought about that and do you not think i may have realized that wasn going to work My biggest one is I love when people ask me why don you make a three pack or a two pack And I said because the ice pack won hold the chill that long.

14:24 Plenty of bags you can buy on the market for a two pack. If you're going to dinner, grab a two pack bag. I have some of the soft bags. Of course, I take those to dinner so I don't look like a raging alcoholic when I walk into the restaurant with two or three bottles in my hand. But I don't need an ice pack system for that. I need an ice pack system for what I was going to be in the heat where I could leave my wine in a car and not rush from winery to winery. My husband didn't like schlepping wine from winery to winery every time I bought three, six or nine or 12 bottles.

15:01 And then we go tasting at the next winery. And he's like, I'm not going to bring these bottles into the winery and I'm not going to leave the wine in the car. And this was not a good relationship. This was not working for me. Because I could see his side and I could see your side. Well, Forrest, I need a wine mule. Okay. I need a wine mule. Exactly. Oh, that's funny. That would be the best if you were a mule. That would be the best job you could have to be Janine's wine mule. I love it. I totally needed one, but he quit.

15:38 So I had to bring in the Arctic Penguin team and they're awesome. Is there any other ideas out there that because that was fascinating that with people suggesting that was there any other ones that they were? I don't want to get into the logo because every time I mess with my logo, somebody's got, well, is this thing? Oh, stop. Oh, yes. I've been told the logo is oversaturated in the market. I have been told, you know, the redesign of the bag should be this and better. And Travis Rosbach from Hydro Flask and I got to have a conversation.

16:16 And in our conversation, he asked me, why did you invent and redesign the whole cooler? Why aren't you just selling these ice packs? And I said, you know, Travis, that is an excellent question. And I'm going to tell you why. And that's when I said, because you cooler guys are about the beers and the bros. Us wine people have a taller item. Most of the products on the market do not have a cooler that is tall enough or that would accommodate the ice pack system to hold for up to 24 hours or a bit longer.

16:59 and the height of a wine bottle. I said, and when you lay a wine bottle inside a cooler with a bunch of loose ice, you've got inconsistency of chilling for the wine. You can over chill the wine. And I don't like to play wine bottle roulette. Labels can fall off. And those labels are not only important to know what I'm drinking, they're also very important to the artist who put that label on the bottle. He sat back and laughed and chuckled and said, you're right, we missed the mark on the wine industry.

17:33 I said, yes, you did. In addition to all of that is wine is about presentation. And it's not like you say, dunking for apples, going in there, mystery bottles, and oh, that's a wine bottle. I can tell. Pull it up and go, I don't know which one it is. Let's talk about a whole new level of the Pirates of Caribbean. Yo-ho, yo-ho. Okay, let's talk about the cost, color scheme or sizes and all of the options that we've got when we go to the web address is the number three, rdbottle.com. So it's thirdbottle.com.

18:09 So when we go there, tell me what we're going to hit. So when you come on to the website, you're going to see we have two products available that come in a six pack and a 12 pack. The six pack will hold chill for six to eight hours, depending on the lid integrity. And that ice pack is also interchangeable, interlocking, modular, lays flat inside the refrigerator. I mean, the freezer. And then we have a 12 pack that is also modular, compact for the freezer. The 12 pack is $3.95, but we have a summer sale right now.

18:48 and the six pack is on sale for $2.95. You can also purchase the six pack ice packs or the 12 pack ice packs individually. So if you do have a cooler that can accommodate the height of a wine bottle in the ice packs and the measurements are all on the website. So if you have something that will accommodate our ice packs, by all means, buy the ice packs and insert them into your own personal cooler. The only thing we can't guarantee is how long that the ice packs will stay cold because we don't know the integrity of how thick your cooler is.

19:25 When you purchase the wine bag, it does come with a condensation towel because the ice packs do sweat very little. That was just more a personal thing for me. I just didn't like the little bit of water that I got at the bottom. So I had the manufacturer design a towel specifically to absorb that. And they also include the ice packs. So for the purchase of the cooler bag, you get the bag, the ice packs, and the condensation towel. Okay, okay, perfect. Just a side question. Why do you fill up the deals and not have like, you know, the blue ice or whatever that are already pre-filled?

20:09 And why do you make it? What was the thought behind that? It would have changed the price of the whole thing. shipping from the manufacturer to bringing here with customs. The pre-filled ones are considered into a, you're going more into a biohazard, into a chemical balance. And when I did do one prototype with it, it didn't hold the freeze any longer than what regular water will do. So also one of the thoughts that I had had in doing my due diligence of studying and learning everything about the cooler industry that I have zero background in.

20:50 I have been a W-2 employee my entire life. I do not come from a manufacturing background or family. So when I was diving deep into learning about coolers and chemicals and laws and customs, the water was the better fit. it did everything the gel packs do, even the gel beads that I had purchased a gel pack that had beads in it and then you added water So I took the beads out and put it in ours and it didn change the length of the chill time So it was keeping the prices down keeping the chemicals away Plus I didn want the liability if a kid got into it, if it broke, you know, and somebody ingested it.

21:40 I didn't want that liability. Plus, this is easier when I met and designed it all for the TSA regulations because I do love flying to Europe and buying wine and bringing home wine back in cargo. I wanted to make sure that the ice packs would hold up and they do. And I didn't want to have to deal with TSA and hazardous chemicals and all those questions that they ask you at the TSA checkpoints. If you brought your guns, your swords, your chemicals, I didn't want to have to deal with that either. Good deal.

22:16 So you thought of that? Well, being a flight attendant helped me think of that because I got to listen to those little speeches every day. Okay, we've got four multiple choice questions coming at you here. Wine travels best at a consistent temperature. What's the real enemy the third bottle is protecting your wine from? A, sunlight, B, heat, C, bumps in the road, or D, curious seagulls? I like D, but we're going to go with heat. Heat is the biggest enemy. Number two, the bag is modular, correct?

22:53 The bag is a solid piece. The ice packs are modular. So how does that flex to your adventure? A, it stretches like elastic. B, it reconfigures from four to six to 12 bottles. C, it splits into two separate bags. Or D, it inflates with air. C, it fits in two separate bags. All right, number three, what's the number one mistake people make when they use it for the first time? and how do you save them from themselves? I would say the zipper, the lid integrity, using the airtight zipper, keeping it closed, you know, as much as possible.

23:27 Which I was going to ask you about the zipper because there's so many products that I use that it seems like they skimp on the zipper and I'm always having trouble like a Yeti. I've got three, two zip Yetis and I just, man, it takes an act of God to zip that thing shut. I know they want to make it waterproof and that whole thing, but good God, I got to have a team of mules to pull that thing closed. And it's like, ah, isn't there a balance? So I do have an airtight zipper. It is a little on the tighter side.

23:59 However, ours does come with a zipper lube and that does help. Excuse me. I have never heard that term before in my life. Okay. It's a little zipper lube. So how? Easy access. How do you apply this? At the beginning of your zip or at the end of the zip? At the beginning. The first time you would open it, you'd put a little bit on the top and the bottom of the zipper. And then you would just reapply as needed, which, to be honest, I've only used it once. My husband likes using it more. I just muscle it in.

24:36 I muscle it. There's a shot at the husband right there. Oh, come on. Pretty much. Yeah. Pretty much. What's his name? All right. Yeah. All right, Jeff. She fired one across the bow there. The last one. The interlocking ice packs are the secret weapon. What's the freezer rule that people always forget? Is it A, fill to the line, don't overfill? B, freeze a full 24 hours? Or C, don't skip a pack to save room? Or D, all of the above? We're going to go with D, all the above. Yes, correct. All of the above.

25:12 So why would people try to save room and skip a pack? I don't get that, but I could see people doing that. Yes. And what I love about it is because they are modular. So when I take one of the little sections out to accommodate other things, bigger bottles, different bottles, different food containers, I slip it on the other side in between the wall of the ice bag and then the bottles. So you're still getting the same amount of chill from the ice packs without losing the integrity by just removing it and not putting it in there.

25:54 So out of all of your girlfriends and the people that have been supporting you, who has been your biggest fan? My biggest fan would definitely be my husband. He watches me up all hours of the night dealing with manufacturers and the designers. But my biggest critic is my middle daughter, who I've had a lot of crazy ideas in my head. And I keep saying, oh, I'm going to invent that. I'm going to redesign that. And she would laugh and say, those are silly ideas. But when she saw this, she took a step back and she said, I wish I would have had this with all the bachelorette parties.

26:31 I was going to schlepping champagne bottles in cardboard boxes. Oh, that's awesome. And on the bag, I don't have the web address in front of me, but on the bag, is it prominently displayed your logo and your branding and all of that stuff? Yes, the logo is right in the front of the bag on embossed in the little pocket. So you can have your wine keys in there as well. And you can put your little wine court stoppers. I don't know what those are, but allegedly if you don't drink a full bottle of wine, you can put this little thing on there to stop it from spilling.

27:09 And you can hold those in the pocket as well. Okay, we have a code offering a free second set of ice packs. The code will be F-R-E-E-I-C-E-1-2-3-I-C-E-12. You'll get a second set of ice packs for the 12 pack cooler bag. And then the second code is FREEICED6 for the six pack ice packs. We will also offer 25% off a cooler bag. The code is 520 for the five minute wine. And then Instagram, you can find us at the number three for thirdbottle.winebag. Facebook is the number three for thirdbottle.wine.

28:07 TikTok is three thirdbottle.wine.bag. Thank you so much, Forrest. It was so great talking to you. Thank you for listening. Tell your friends and pets. Please like and follow. Please like and follow. Please like and follow.