The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – One Bottle at a Time: A True Love Story; 50 Tequila Craft Cocktails by Debbie Medina-Gach

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

One Bottle at a Time: A True Love Story; 50 Tequila Craft Cocktails by Debbie Medina-Gach Senorrio.com Amazon.com Dive into the vibrant world of mixology. One bottle at a time- a true love story is a heartfelt collection of 50 tequila craft cocktails each page unfolds a deeply personal narrative a tapestry of love, family, fate and resilience. Discover the story behind the bottle of Senor Rio tequila. Each of the fifty recipes comes with clear, step-by-step instructions, making it accessible for everyone. It’ s a celebration of creativity and a chance to unlock your hidden talents.

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necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Foss show. Some guests of the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind. Today, we have an amazing young lady on the show. We're going to be talking about her tequila business that she started as an entrepreneur and her new book that come out April 29th, 2025. It is called One Bottle at a Time, A True Love Story, 50 Tequila Craft Cocktails. Debbie Medina Gotch will be joining us on the show. We'll be talking about it. I think when I saw the title of her book, One Bottle at a Time, a True Love Story, it kind of explains my drinking over 20 years, but there was that. Debbie is the co-founder and CEO

of Señor Rio Tequila, and my bad Mexican accent, evidently, And trailblazer in the tequila industry. Tequila! In 2007, she and her late husband, Jonathan, launched Señor Rio Tequila, a brand that has since become a symbol for artisanal quality and heritage. Debbie's journey into entrepreneurship came after more than 20 years of making real estate, driven by her passion for building meaningful connections with families and communities. Her personal story is marked by resilience, love and transformation has shaped both her business and philanthropic efforts. During the pandemic, she founded We Care Crusade, a nonprofit inspired by her twin

granddaughters with special needs. The organization supports families' navigating challenges, reflecting Debbie's commitment to passion and advocacy. Welcome to the show, Debbie. How are you? with special needs. The organization supports families' navigating challenges, reflecting Debbie's commitment to passion and advocacy. Welcome to the show, Debbie. How are you? I am fabulous. Gosh, that was such a wonderful introduction. Thank you. It's yours. You lived it. So give us a.com so people can find you on the interwebs. Oh, senorrio.com is the website. And then your Rio is the name of the tequila It's available at total wine and on the website you can link to the book one bottle at a time And also we care crusade, which is where my heart is

That's the nonprofit that I get up every morning for it because through tequila smiles We're putting smiles on the faces that really need it which are the families that have the children with special needs. Thank you for having me! Thank you for coming! I mean, Tequila always put smiles on my face. That's what I remember about it. The parts that I remember. Okay.

The jokes, as far as they're people. So give us a... We got the dot coms. Give us a 30,000 overview of what's in your new book. Oh, first I want to show you the cover, because I don't know if you can see it. One bottle at a time, a true love story, 50 Tequila Craft cocktails. I know it sounds like a long title, but it's because it's telling the story behind the bottle.

You know, a lot of tequilas on the market, they come from big corporations, they're out of boardrooms, celebrities, whatnot. This is a tequila That's born out of family And so when you read this book you're going on the journey with me from when I met Jonathan who became my soulmate and The two of us co-founded the brand and it's dedicated to my father senor Rio And I reunited with him in Mexico after 30 years. So it's almost like you're getting into my diary and each story is paired with a beautiful

crafted tequila cocktail. And they're done by a wonderful mixologist here in Arizona, Carlos Ruiz. And so it's a book that you can use as your coffee table book, recipe book, it's a love story, and it's just my heart. So yeah, it's available on Amazon. I'm excited. And you said Jonathan, I believe that was your husband. Is that correct?

Yes. Yes. So Jonathan was a New Yorker. I'm from Chicago, and the two of us met in Arizona. So in the desert, the desert brought us together. And I rang his bell because I was in real estate prior to starting a tequila business. Pete Slauson Mm hmm. Usually ringing the bell is how all marriages

start I think. I don't know what that means. Jennifer Lundberg You know, I rang the bell to show the house and you know, he was the homeowner and you know, for sure. Pete Slauson That's awesome. Jennifer Lundberg Yeah, it happened. But unfortunately, Jonathan can't be here. He's in heaven. Seven years ago, he passed from stage four pancreatic cancer and he was in great shape. He took care of himself. He taught me how to take care of myself more, but God had other plans.

And so I just kind of took the bull by the horns after his passing when people said, Hey Deb, you're still going to do this tequila thing. Can you do this alone? He said, yeah, I'm sure going to try. So yeah, 16 years celebrating. And part of the book covers that love story and you guys starting the business, correct? Absolutely. You're going to shake your head and go, did that really happen? No.

And then, so you tell us the story of how you started this company and what was the proponents behind it? Like, why were you like, you wanted to leave the corporate world and some of that, we mentioned the bio, maybe there's some interest, you know, what your past husband was trying to do. Tell us the story of how you decided to move into this and give up the security of a day job. Dr. Sara Larson Yeah, big leap of faith, a lot of prayers. You know, I was raised on the South Side of Chicago, single mom, and I didn't know my dad, he wasn't around. And so, when I moved to Arizona, I've been down in Arizona over 20 years, I got a phone call, my dad wanted to see me, and he's living in Mexico. So I was a little bit taken back and I

said to Jonathan at the time, he's my partner in crime, and I said, you know, I got this call for my dad. I'm not sure I want to go. I'm kind of on the fence. He's 30 years too late. And he encouraged me because he lost his dad when he was young. And he said, you know, you should go. Yeah. And I said, come with me then. You want to go to Mexico? Let's go. So we went there with no expectations, pretty much just a reunion, father, daughter, getting to know each other. And maybe I was a little angry because so many years had

passed, three decades. Yeah, there's a little bit of it. And we're almost like strangers. So we sit at the kitchen table, and he looks at us and says, get us tequila. OK, we're in Mexico. And get us tequilas. Would you like tequila?

Of course. So he brought out a bottle, very simple bottle, no label and started pouring it. We're sipping this with him and as we sipped, it really got us talking. Tequila is a way of loosening the lips from what I hear. Yes, they call it truth juice. The truth juice. So we really started to open up and broke the ice literally. And we shared stories about our lives and we finished the entire bottle, please no judgment. And the next morning didn't have a headache or hangover. Yeah. And so John and I were surprised, how do we drink all this tequila? We feel fine. I mean,

we literally could have ran a marathon the next day, we felt that good. And my dad said it's how I make it. He was making this. It went back three generations in my family, which I had no idea about. And it was a moonshine just for family and friends. After our visit, when we came back to Arizona,

we had the craziest idea and thought, what if, what if we could follow this process, this family recipe and bring it to the marketplace? So that's kind of how it all started. If I did not go to Mexico and reunite with my dad, there's probably no way I'd be in the tequila business. That's one way to catch up to missing fathers and stuff like that. And one amazing story, bringing the family kind of back together as it were. And then, so you get in the tequila business and yeah, I mean, one of the beautiful things about tequila, there was some, we were talking pre-show about how some of my predilection with vodka and then I learned that, and I

was starting to have hangovers in my old age, it wasn't going well. You know, I did a good 20 years of hard drinking and I mean, it was hard. I was awake up in the morning. I don't want to make that weird, but no, I mean, I'm a big guy and I have a high tolerance. So I kind of have to drink hard. I have to do anything. I mean, I have to have three or four Tylenols to get out of pain. So I have high resistance to everything, which kind of keeps me in good and good without the problems growing up. That's without it. But booze, you know, was a way for me to relax. It was pure sugar for the machine. And as an entrepreneur, I could, you know, at night I get tired, you know, I still have 5 million things to do as an entrepreneur. So I like paint on some booze and, and then I relax and kind of have some

energy from the sugar from it, conversion. And so yeah, I just rock and roll. But I found that tequila, if you get the, I think it's the silver, there's one that's really clean, that won't get, that doesn't have a lot of particles, I guess in it or something that doesn't give you a hangover. You can probably tell me more what that is, because I know. Yes. Really know. You know, everything starts with how it's made. And not all tequilas are created equal.

It starts with the farming and the agave. It's called the blue-webber agave that has to come out of Mexico. And there's actually five regions that it can come from. And we grow ours in Jalisco in the lowlands, which is a rich volcanic soil but it's how long you mature the plant. So the plant we keep in the earth 8 to 12 years and doing that it gives it the proper

sugar content naturally. Therefore we don't have to add anything. Now if there's big brands that are mass produced and they take the plant out before maturity it could be a little bitter and so that's why some tequilas might have a little vanilla or caramel because they're adding something to mask that bitterness. There are tequilas that do contain perhaps sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial coloring, flavoring.

We do not, it's made all natural. It's authentic, it's vanilla tequila. A little trick just to let you know, Chris, if you take some tequila and you put it on your hands And you put your hands together like you want to clap and if it feels at least bit sticky that means there could be something I've had tequila. It's overly sticky You know your hands just come apart Little bit wet little moist and it's okay. Go ahead drink up

And you know, it's it's the sugars that will give you the, I don't feel so good the next day. Oh yeah. Because again, it all starts with the harvesting of the plant. Even when we make Senor Rio, the yeast comes from the honey of the plant because it's in the earth that long. I mean, I always refer to, let's say you're going to have a peach and it's ripe. It's delicious. If it's not ripe, not so good.

Same thing with the agave. It has to be ripe in order to produce a very good tasting tequila that we don't have to add anything that doesn't belong in it. Pete Slauson Let's talk about your journey as an entrepreneur. How hard was it to learn some of the different things that you needed to do when you first started as an entrepreneur and then maybe walk us through, you know, the crisis of what you went through with not only losing a business partner, but a partner in life and how you survived that?

Because that could be a challenge when you lose a partner. It was devastating. You know, when Jonathan was diagnosed, it was as if a stop sign came before our life. And all the focus was, what do we do? You've got to have treatments, chemo's, it was a clinical trial. I mean, anyway, you know how you're just going through life learning the lessons that come your way. But going back to your question about how we started, we literally were self-distributing.

We leave the house with our suitcase. We had a warehouse in Gilbert, Arizona, and go out there and just knock on doors, you know, restaurants and bars and liquor stores and strip clubs and country clubs and, you know, I mean, I was just out there going, hey, how are you today? Working the pavement. Yeah, so, you know, opening up accounts and it was in the summer, it was you today? Working the pavement. Yeah, so we were just opening up accounts and it was in the summer, it was in May 2009 when we launched.

Oh wow. And we opened up about 100 accounts, just the two of us. And then we went to a distributor because it's a lot of work. You're out there, you're getting the orders, you're making the deliveries, you're doing the samplings and different things. And then a distributor said,

oh, so this is your pocket list, you have all these accounts. We said, yeah, they all want Send Your Rio. And so we had a distributor said, oh, so this is your pocket list, you have all these accounts. We said, yeah, they all want Send Your Real. And so we had a distributor there for a while. But then eventually Total Wine and More was opening up in Arizona. It's a great store, I don't know if you've been in one, but it's a very large retail store,

almost like Toys R' Us for adults. And they had a program where they like to work with small producers, which is what we are. And they said, you know, they would take the bottle. So we were selling bottles to their store. And then eventually they put us in what's called a spirits direct program so that it's only available there. And that's how we've grown literally just through the retail stores of Total Wine across the nation. Did you deal with a lot of rejection when you're, you know, knocking on bars? I mean,

they're not the most friendliest people sometimes. You know, and I go back to my real estate days where I have a thick skin, but a no means I'll just, just not now. Right. Yeah. Just not now. I'll come back. What's a good time? You just have to be, you know, and I've never been pushy. It's all about just educating and showing this is what I have. And, you know, when I go into a bar, I say, why don't I pour this for a couple of your customers? And if they like it, they'll tell you. If they don't like it, they'll tell you, you know, and it was really just building rapport and relationships like in

any business. But again, once we got into the retail store, then it was more to consumers because I would be in the stores every weekend. Jonathan would be at one store, I'm at another store and we're sampling and customers are tasting and they're loving it and we're telling them, yeah, this is like our baby. We brought it to the market and then we give them a little bit of the back story in a nutshell. And the name Senor Rio Rio which means Mr. River is dedicated to my father. It's his nickname. So he wanted to give the tequila an identity.

And so people kind of, I guess they were rooting for us being in a small business, a little bit of an underdog because we have the deep pockets for marketing. I mean if you look at one of the big trailblazers in the ultra premium sector, it's Patron. Now Patron's sold to Bacardi, but they would spend $60 million a year on marketing. Wow. Yeah, that's what we said. That's to tell Phil the gorilla.

So to compete in an arena as large as that as a small boutique brand, you can imagine the gorilla marketing and the hands-on that we did. And it did take time. It took about five years to profit. So we were eating butter and jelly sandwiches and going through hard times. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, I remember my days of being an entrepreneur.

I was a lot of Top Ramen. Yeah, you lived through it. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you buy the various flavors of Top Ramen so you can have, you know, you can have some, you know, the spread of variety there. You know, you mix it up, throw an egg or a broccoli in there every now and then, you got yourself a, that's a fine course meal of entrepreneurism. But yeah, I mean, I love your story. I mean, how door knocking bars and strip clubs and other places. I mean,

and you know, like, Hey, what do you want? And, you know, normally they're used to buying, correct me if I'm wrong, their liquor through the distributors from different things. So no one expects somebody. Yeah, they have a portfolio of product that they have available and we're like, Hey, we've got three bottles. Cause at the time it was just the three bottles of Blanco, Pazado and Añejo. Yeah. So I can imagine, you know, you're sitting in the, I've known a lot of bar club owners, strip club owners, and they're, they're like, who's up front? What?

Some lady selling tequila? I'm busy. I'm busy. Tell her to go away. and they're like, who's up front? What? Some lady selling tequila? I'm busy, I'm busy, tell her to go away. So, I mean, I just love that moxie, because you see a lot of entrepreneurs, they fail fairly early on,

and the key was do the work. I mean, when we started our companies, we were working like 18 hours a day. We were, thank God, 20. So because I remember, we were telling my business partner when we were 20, I'm like, we can do this now and work our asses off. Because we're young enough and able to pull it off and, you know, live on top ramen. But I don't think we're going to be able to do this when we're 50. Boy, was I right. There was this could have done this 18 hour days on call and stuff.

You know, I love a story like this because you guys put forth the effort and stuff. You mentioned some of the different functions that you use to make your tequila better by you know, leaving the ground longer. You know, there's so many people who jumped into the industry. I guess we'll get into that in a second. But let me ask you this. What else makes your tequila more unique? Cause I'm sure people are asking that in the,

you go to the aisle, there's 50,000 variations. Oh my gosh, no, I use the term. It's like going down a shampoo aisle because you're like, which one, which one, which one? And you know, it's really, it's the marketing, it's social media that has a big impact which wasn't really out As prevalent as it is today when we started 16 years ago But what sets Senor Rio apart is how we make it

I mean the traditional way and all the agaves are from one estate a lot of brands today since they're mass-produced They're buying from this farm and that farm and so you don't have the same consistency Hmm, and then we roast the agaves, we don't steam them. When you're mass producing and they're steaming them, just think about when you make vegetables, if you steam vegetables, not so good. But if you roast them, oh my gosh, all the natural juices. So it goes to from the harvesting to the production and to how we make it that sets it apart. So I always like to say, you know, again, I'm not saying Senor real is

the best out there. Maybe it's to me and I hope everybody else likes it because the bad tequila wouldn't be in business this long. And at the same time, they're looking for different flavor profiles. What are you picking up when you taste it? We use cognac barrels where most of the tea is with the barrels Oh really? Uh-huh We keep our barrels underground and rotate them quarterly to get a good balance of the oak and also for climate control So there's a lot of different techniques that we use in making Senorillo to bring it out Our Inyeho is two years in the barrel. a lot of them are just one year in the barrel.

Our extra inyejo is five years. We have a double barrel inyejo. And then now there's a coffee tequila called Cafe Elegancia, which is my guilty pleasure. So it's just, you know, what that person is looking for. Are you a sipper, a mixer, a chiller, a shooter, all of the above. And everything starts with the blanco, which is tequila in its purest form. And then that's aged. So, reposado means rested and mejo means aged. And it's all the blanco, just a progression of aging, kind of like us. You know, Chris, do we get better with age? Chris Larson I'm a blanco. I don't know. My brain seems

to be getting better with age. My body is, is going the other way. It's kind of an up and down yin and yang sort of battle between who can win first. I don't know. I'm either going to be Albert Einstein when I die or I don't know. I can't feel my legs. Anyway, you know, I'm glad to hear you like the Blanco. Yes.

Yeah. I mean, I, I, I used to love all the variations of tequila. And like you say, there's a lot of competitors out there. There's a lot of marketing that you have to fight with of these big brands. I imagine one of the other things you've had to deal with is it seems like, you know, I'm a big Sammy Hager fan. You know, the Patron, I remember Patron used to be really kind of a specialty product because most people couldn't afford it back in the day. And then it seemed to become really common.

I think people are still pouning up the bucks, but it seems like it's, you know, more people drink it now than ever before. So you're competing with some of this noise and marketing the competition. And then all these, it seems like all these actors and rock stars have gotten into the tequila business. And I mean, even what's his face from SNL and, and I think he's got vodka in his. I don't think he has tequila. I'm thinking of the, one of the guys from, from Ghostbusters. Anyway, how do you, how do you deal with that too? Has that been weird and created more competition in the market?

All the actors and... Absolutely. You know, I, I'm still literally Chris in the stores. You'll find me sometimes at a total wine store. I'm sampling like the Snapple lady, you know, and I'll just say to the customers, come on over, let me spoil you a little bit. I've got some nice tequila for you to try. And, you know, I'm letting everybody taste and, you know, they, they like the tequila, they like the presentation.

I mean, I'll just show you the bottle real quick. I mean, you could see it in the back there, but it's, it's very, you know, nice presentation. I'll just show you the bottle real quick. I mean you could see it in the back there but it's very nice presentation. So we've really been growing on taste and presentation and I'll kid around and say, you know, I should have been famous first. Yeah, but I'm not. And so it's a brand again built out of family but you know after John's passing I'm running the company, I'm working crazy, traveling to all the total wine stores and just out there because I wanted to stay alive and make sure that, you know, the brand was going to still have the same staying power. And then through a mutual friend, I did meet a celebrity, Mr. Joe Montegna.

And Joe, who a lot of people know from Criminal Minds, he's Agent Rossi, but I mean hundreds of movies, you know, Godfather Part III, he plays George Saza, and you know, Rat Pack, he's Dean Martin, and I mean just numerous, numerous movies. And so Joe and I connected also because he has a daughter with special needs, she's autistic. And I have granddaughters with special needs. They're identical twins as you said when you introduced me who have Angelman syndrome. And so during COVID when I wasn't able to be in the stores, I'm home. That's when I decided I I wanna start a nonprofit and

I wanna start helping families that have children with special needs for every bottle we sell. Donate to We Care Crusade and I make these phone calls and say, you know, tell me a little bit about your child. Somebody nominated your family and we'd like to help you with some financial support. And so I was explaining to Joe, A, I really need someone to help me grow the brand because it's getting very competitive out there. He's a celebrity who has a large following.

B, the nonprofit aspect about being a tequila that is on a mission, and he said, you're a tequila with a cause. And then C was, yeah, Joe, maybe together we can really create awareness, not just for the brand, but for the nonprofit. So then Joe was interested and he said, yeah, this is not gonna be my day job,

but I wanna be a part of this. And so he became co-owner, my business partner, and having him has been such a blessing because when we do have him at the Total Wine stores, people line up out the door. They're there because they love Joe, they want to meet Joe, they want a picture with him, they want him to sign the bottle, and it's great because, you know, before that it was just, you know, being in the stores, having ambassadors do tastings myself and growing what I call the old fashioned way, one bottle, one person at a time. But having Joe has just been a tremendous help in growing the brand more. And, and, and it works for a good cause.

Tell us a little bit more about the cause too, that it's wecarecrusade.org. We Care Crusade, yes. And you know, when we started the company, a lot of nonprofits would reach out and say, hey, you know, we're having this fundraiser, can you give us some tequila? Can you make us some baskets? Can you donate? Whatever. And we would, I'd always say to John,

we gotta give back, this is a great cause. We're helping the puppies, or we're helping this, or we're helping that. And that was fine. But after knowing firsthand what families sacrifice and what they do when you have children with special needs, that is where my heart is. It really speaks to me wholeheartedly where I said, you know, there's so many great foundations,

but at the same time, I wanted to start one to help these families because, you know, having children is such a blessing. But when you add on, and I don't like to say disability because they do have abilities, but for instance, you know, my granddaughters, they're nine years old, they're non-verbal, only one is walking, and they will always have a mindset like a toddler. And there's not a lot of awareness about Angel Man Syndrome because it's only one in 15,000 that have this. And Colin Farrell, who is the actor, has a son who's now in his 20s that has Angel Man Syndrome. So it's becoming a little bit more known, but at the same time, we help families not

just Angelman syndrome, but autism, whatever their special need is. And so by selling the tequila, yes, that is what I do, but having this nonprofit is helping those families through the sales of the tequila and now the sales of the book. So we can then increase what we have in the nonprofit to help more families. What a wonderful cause too, a wonderful way to give back. Why do you feel it's important for entrepreneurs to give back? Bless you. It just feeds the soul. It feels good. It really does.

You can't be, you know, self-centered me, me, me, me, me. It's about what gets you up out of bed every day because you love what you do. You're passionate about it. But when you're able to help others, that is a true blessing. And I think that's what our purpose is. You know, it's all about us doing what we can, you know, it may not even be that big, but whatever we can do, it's the little things that do make a difference. Yeah.

And, you know, helping small business people, helping small business people give back, helping them succeed. You know, I'm always appreciative of the people who buy our products over all my years of companies and being able to give back to something bigger. I mean, that's one of the great things about entrepreneurship is how it gives back, how it will contribute to society. I want to say mainstream sort of entrepreneurship and business. You know, I mean, a lot of these companies nowadays, you know, a lot of people don't

know, but when you're contributing that dollar or whatever that is to Walmart or some of the big box companies, a lot of it's just going into a bank. Like it's just a storage bank and I think they have to give away a portion of that money, but a lot of it's held in a bank. You're actually just helping them become banks at this point. And so helping small businesses, buying from small businesses, supporting Main Street style businesses, that's real backbone of America and our economy really when it comes down to it.

And, you know, it makes a difference. You're supporting someone's family, the love, their passion, the fact that they care a little bit more. So, you know, some of the tips, techniques you have of making sure you have a higher quality product out there, that costs money and it takes extra work. And if you're out there, support small businesses, help mainstream media out. They're not laying off people to bump their stock price. They're usually helping jobs in their community and be a part of it. I'm glad you're doing that because we need more of that charity. We need to become more of a

charitable society. I look at Canada where they're always saying sorry all the time and they seem to have a culture of decency, unlike us, excuse me. And Japan has also a culture of respect and decency and, you know, we need more of that charitable stuff. What else do we want to promote before we go out that you want to tell people about and get them involved with? Jennifer L. I'm just honored to be here. And you know, I don't do many podcasts. This is something new for me. And I mainly, you know, was thinking, oh, you know, I want people to know about the book because otherwise how

many books are out there. But it is all full circle. It's the tequila, it's the love story, it's the book, it's family, and it's giving back. So to me, it's full circle. And I just feel privileged every day I count my blessings. And yes, it's sad I don't have Jonathan with me, but at the same time I feel his presence. And I think, ah, I think he's kind of proud

of what I'm doing. But you know, tequila is very mainstream, everything in moderation. If you're looking to sip a nice fine tequila, please keep Senor Rio in mind. If you want to read a great book, please check it out. You can go to the website, learn a little bit more about it. And then if you have a child with special needs that we can help, reach out. Or if you know a family,

or if you want to donate, reach out. Everything is right now at our fingertips because of the internet. We have our social media, we have the website. I mean, I still literally answer every email. Really? Yeah, I just feel that that's important. Yeah, yeah. You've got to keep your boots on the ground and know what's going on in the front lines and stuff.

Sometimes you can get out of touch with these companies you build and you're so far separated from the front, you don't really have a good dipstick of what's going on in your company. You know, I used to track, I learned this from Tom Peters, I think it was, but I used to track, I would do random calls to my office and pretend like I was a customer and then I would see how I'd get past to the workflow or if I'd get past the workflow. There was a couple of times where my secretary hung up on me, an anonymous prospective customer and it did not go well.

But these are the things you got to know. You got to know what's going on in your company and being in touch with the frontline, some of the things you get from your customers, questions, complaints, issues, you know, being able to respond to them makes all the difference in the world. Debbie, give us your final pitch as we go out and I think we got most of it, but go ahead and share. I will share one more thing. In the bottle is a secret message. And so if you do happen to go to Total Wine store, and some of the stores will even let you sample it, so sometimes I say try before you buy

to see which one you like. But if you look inside, behind the front label, and behind the back label, we are putting a message out there that's rather important. And I don't wanna give it away, as much as I wanna tell you what it is, just go to the store and pick up your bottle or take a peek inside, and you can always reach out through social media. Yeah, yeah,

you saw that message. And I can go deeper into what that meaning is because it's there for a reason. Ah, that sounds pretty interesting. I know some companies do some different things like that, like little Easter eggs. I don't know if you call them that in the tequila business, but. Hey, Deb, is it a different message in each bottle? And I said, no, it's not a fortune cookie. It's the same message. It's the same message? Nurt it! They all say the same message in the Black, the Red, the Sadhu, and the Neha.

Yes. Is the message you'll be dancing on tables in half an hour? It does help you dance better, I have to say. Thank you for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. It's been fun and enlightening and what a great story and homage to your husband. Just a great story that you've shared with us, Debbie. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

Salute. Appreciate it. Salute! And I feel like I should have some tequila here. Anyway, guys, thanks for tuning in. Go check out her wares on her website, check out her charitable foundation, all that good stuff and yeah, support mainstream people that make good products. You know, these big industrial sized products, I mean, they're okay.

They employ wonderful people, I'm sure. But so, you know, support the mainstream entrepreneurs. Anyway, thanks for tuning in everyone. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time. And that should have it.