By Marian Leitner-Waldman

At Archer Roose we have been reflecting a lot over the last few months on the role we have in our industry. This pandemic has been catastrophic to so many, in the wine industry and beyond. Our consumers are our community and as our discussions have progressed alongside the pandemic we have found ourselves wanting to expand our conversations to you.

Our topics of discussion are fundamental to who we are as a company and we don’t have the perfect solutions to them just yet. But that shouldn’t stop us from sharing them with you. A constant belief that runs throughout our conversations is that our transparency as a company shouldn’t begin once we have achieved a perceived perfection – but rather as we progress throughout our journey. 

Our namesake, Archer Roose, lived by her own rules. We want to approach how we move forward from this pandemic with the same curious nature and adventurous spirit that she explored her world. Many of us feel isolated from each other right now and we want to build on the different ways we have found to connect with one another throughout this time.

Let’s start with the philosophy that forms the very foundation of what we do: 

We, Archer Roose, are building a craft wine brand that stands for what our community believes in: transparent and sustainable wines served in eco-friendly packaging that fits all lifestyles.

In order to accomplish this, we have built our brand on four pillars:

1. Practice
2. Place
3. People
4. Profile

Practice

We are transparent in our practices and how our wines are made; from where our grapes are grown to how our wine ends up in your hands. To us sustainability doesn’t just include our packaging but every choice we make across our supply chain. While conversations around “clean wines” are dominating the industry we believe the focus should be on what it means to be “consciously made” and how to best serve our community instead.

Place

What does place mean to us now we can’t travel as freely? It means that now more than ever where our wine comes from is important to us; place is responsible for how our wine breathes and how it feels. We hope that by bringing you wonderful wines from celebrated places it will help you feel more connected to a world that has been out of reach this year.

People

Sustainability means very little if we don’t treat our people with the same respect we treat our wines. We are proud of the winemakers we have partnered with and we want to give them the care and attention they deserve. Sustainability also means having honest conversations about labor practices in our industry and challenging the institutionalized perceptions of quality. For example, why do we elevate wines that are made from hand picked grapes as opposed to machine harvested, when the hands involved aren’t always paid fairly for their work? These traditionally celebrated practices cannot contribute to an accessibly priced bottle of wine without exploitative labor. We are working to change these assumptions of quality and by doing so hope to make lasting positive change on the human and environmental impacts of wine. 

Profile

We want to discuss and challenge the institutionalized palette; meaning who decides which wines are ‘good' and which are ‘bad'. We strive to make wines that we want to drink and that we know our community will want to drink as well. Let’s start doing the work to empower people to embrace the wines they enjoy.

We built Archer Roose on the belief that we must all do our part to build a better world. It’s not enough to be leading bigger conversations for change if we’re not putting the work in as well. We trust ourselves to do this and we trust you to hold us accountable where we fall short.

We want to inspire you to live better by drinking better, to give you access to a more inclusive and sustainable wine industry, to empower you to make choices that count. We’re excited to get started.