Carivint•s Winery

It’s little surprise that one of Solvang’s latest wine tasting rooms welcomes dogs, since Carivint•s Winery (476 First St., 693-4331) has the Web address dogloverswineclub.com. Partners Matt Hahn, Fleet Hamilton, and Paul Ramos support numerous nonprofits, mostly animal related, by selling their wines illustrated with artful labels of dogs and featuring inspiring stories about the animal, too. They source wines from fine winemakers and make some of their own, but the unusual shift is the focus on philanthropy-the company’s name itself is a blend of the Latin word caritas (charity) and the French word vin (wine). Carivint•s also sells the Vicktory Dog Wine Collection that celebrates 22 dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s property. A portion of the proceeds from this series goes to the Best Friends Animal Society for campaigns to help strengthen laws against and penalties for dog fighting, and for campaigns against legislation to ban specific breeds of dogs.