EAST PROVIDENCE

James Davids and Marissa Stashenko have a son named Liam, a dog named Lola and a brand-new winery producing the beautifully named Anchor & Hope kegs and bottles.

That's right, kegs are coming out of the new Rumford winery, and they hold wines headed for some of your favorite Rhode Island spots, including Bayberry Beer Hall, Sarto in Providence, Bywater and Metacom Kitchen in Warren, and the East Bay Oyster Bar in Bristol.

Why on tap?

It's better for the environment, always fresh, more profitable for restaurants and just plain more efficient, say the couple. Wine in open bottles loses its mojo fast, making ordering by the glass an issue for some drinkers. That concern disappears with wine on tap.

Their story is unique, and perfect for 2020 and for wine lovers. It's a négociant, craft winery, which means they source their wines from small producers across the globe, rather than grow grapes and make it in Rhode Island. It's a style of business common in France, including names such as Louis Jadot.

Davids, a native of San Francisco, is the winemaker. Stashenko does the marketing, and her Medfield, Massachusetts, roots are what brought them to New England. Driving around Providence a couple of years ago, while here for a family holiday celebration, they sensed good vibes and knew Rhode Island was the spot to grow their new business. They wanted to honor their new home by including the state motto of "Hope" in the wine's name.

David's has worked in vineyards all over the world, making wine in California, Oregon, Germany and New Zealand for the past 17 years, after studying viticulture and enology at the University of California Davis. He recently shut down his San Francisco winery, Oro en Paz, after moving to R.I.

Now he is collaborating with many of the small, organic and sustainable farms that he has worked with to bring unique wines to this market. These are wines that would never make it from Oregon or Germany without such connections.

Fermentation happens at the grower's winery, and the wines ship to Rumford shortly after harvest. Some come in bladders and other in hard-sided containers. About 50% of the winemaking process happens on the ground in R.I.

In Rumford, they are transferred to stainless-steel tanks, where they age. They are then packaged at the winery either into 5.2-gallon kegs for restaurants or into traditional 750mL bottles, which are sold at wine shops including Bottles in Providence and Main Street Wine & Spirits in Coventry.

"Choosing to switch and continually run with two options from Anchor & Hope [rosé and a rotational white] was an easy decision for us," said Tom Dennen, owner of Bayberry Beer Hall in Providence and Anchor & Hope's first client. "It’s absolutely delicious first and foremost, but additionally it’s done locally by a young family, like ourselves, who we adore, and we really appreciate their conscious effort to communicate the environmental benefits of using kegs, along with how well the liquid holds up in a keg rather than bottles."

Though Bayberry is a craft-beer focused restaurant, they have dedicated two lines for draft wine because it fits with their business model, Dennen added.

"To be honest, the wine prior to Anchor & Hope, although it was good, is nothing like what we carry now," he said.

Oliver Williams, executive chef at Sarto, in Providence, said he was happy to consider bringing kegged wine into the Italian restaurant because he already has prosecco on tap, likes partnering with local companies and appreciates that the kegs are sustainable.

"Even if you have a recycling program, as we do, it's hard to keep up with the bottles. It's a problem," he said. "No one wants to be throwing away glass."

Then Williams tried the wines.

"And they were good," he said. "That's key."

He's even planning a wine dinner with Anchor & Hope for later this winter.

He's especially impressed with the Oregon Pinot Gris, which is fermented with the grape skin on for a week of extended maceration, to make it almost an orange wine. It's a style of white wine that has some color, and layered flavors, from being in contact with the skins.

It's one of the wines in Anchor & Hope's portfolio now. It comes from the Applegate Valley, in southern Oregon.

There's also a 2018 Sauvignon Blanc from a Germany winery where Davids worked. The winemaker, Eckehart Groehl, from the Rheinhessen region, is his mentor. The wine has the minerality of a Sancerre with the citrus flavors of a new-world wine. In 2007, Davids helped plant the grapes that make this wine.

Groehl is also the winemaker for a 2018 Riesling, a perfect food wine. A 2018 Chardonnay and 2018 Rosé also comes from another friend of Davids', Nico Espenschied, and the same Rheinhessen region.

There's also a full lineup of red wines, including a 2017 Mendo Red blend of grenache, Syrah and zinfandel, from Mendocino County in Sonoma and winemaker Scot Bilbro, and a Pinot Noir from Oregon.

One look at the Hope & Anchor bottles and you'll notice something different: it identifies the vineyard and appellation of the wine. It's part of the transparency Davids favors. He said the industry is full of large producers who put brand labels on wines that are actually blended across a variety of labels. This does not apply to a segment of high-end wines, but does to most of the bottles the average wine drinker in the U.S. enjoys.

"What is different with our wines is that they come from a place and a person," he said.

Having an identifiable vineyard and winemaker is what makes their products craft wines, explained Stashenko. That makes their sell a little easier, along with the sustainable component (using 100% stainless-steel kegs that have a 30-year lifetime), which can't be underestimated. Another attraction is that their company, called Enotap, while the wine brand is Anchor & Hope, actually puts in the wine-tap systems for restaurants. It's another of Davids' talents developed over his career.



The other selling point is the flavor. You start with good wine, of course, but the tap system helps preserve the crisp freshness of the wine.

Still, they knew they couldn't just make tap wine, and had to offer bottles for those wanting to enjoy their wine at home, said Stashenko. They have set up a hand-bottling system in their Rumford headquarters, which is in the Phillipsdale Landing complex, an old mill along the Seekonk River.

They are distributing through Craft Collective. Distribution is also in Massachusetts, Maine and California.

Their license does not allow for a tasting room.

You can follow them on Instagram/anchorhopewine and at www.anchorhopewine.com to keep up on new stores and restaurants.

gciampa@providencejournal.com