Why we started Ami Ami

You may have heard this already, but the name Ami Ami comes from our daughters, Sophie H and Sophie D. 

They're the reason we met. When both your daughters have the same name its a pretty good way to meet someone new. In this case they just happened to end up being best buds at the same school. Its also where our friendship started and eventually turned into a boxed wine brand.

We're both contrarian by nature, this has positives and negatives. We question everything and want to find a better way to do it, especially when there hasn't been innovation for decades. As we got to know each other, we realized we were both frustrated by the amount of waste that packaging was causing in the wine industry and how expensive and inefficient glass bottles were. We were also frustrated that the focus on sustainability in the wine industry was on the vineyard and the winery. As soon as the wine went into bottle, nobody seemed to care about the sustainability impact anymore.

A good friend and sustainability expert shared some data one day and it blew our minds, that over 50% of the carbon footprint in a bottle of wine comes from the packaging. We couldn't believe it, 2 people with 30 years combined experience in the wine industry and we had no idea. If we, industry veterans, didn't know this, then how was the general consumer supposed to know?

This started our journey to find a better way to drink wine. 

We came across boxed wine and the more we dug in, the more we found endless benefits. At least a 50% carbon footprint reduction, much more efficient to ship and break down once empty and the best part, it stays fresh for 6 weeks after opening. All of this with no impact to quality at all? This was too good to be true and we were sure we'd find some downsides if we dug in more.

To date, the only downside we've found is that consumers "apparently" think all boxed wine is low quality. We've found this to be a little misleading and a narrative thats driven more by retailers than consumers themselves. One of the most common reaction we get is "oh I love boxed wine, I just don't drink Franzia anymore". We leave college and we grow up (a little), we earn a little more cash and out tastes evolve. We're a lot more conscious of what we eat and drink and it becomes a lot more quality over quantity. We realized that we didn't have to reinvent boxed wine, we just had to put a higher quality product inside the box.

Luckily for you, we happen to be excellent winemakers with a lot of experience making high end wines. Getting a higher quality wine into a box was the easy part!

We're not anti-glass at all, we just want you to know that is is a more sustainable option that doesn't sacrifice on quality at all. It's also more affordable!