I wrote the following vision statement for Stanley’s at its inception back in 2016, and it’s gratifying to know that it remains 100% aligned with our guiding principles today.

“Stanley’s is founded on the belief that the world of wine, beer and spirits is one of the few remaining endeavors in the modern world where the magic of mother nature - providing fruit and other organic ingredients from the most beautiful and intriguing corners of the world - combined with attention to detail from true artisans, can produce stunning paradoxes in the glass: complexity with elegance; boldness with refinement; deep flavors with lightness. These drinks can contribute to the most important moments of life with friends and family, and represent some of the best examples of a simple pleasure in an increasingly complex world. These experiences matter to people. So the drink matters as well.”

We are incredibly thankful for the support of our local community, who in turn support the team here at Stanley’s and by extension, the broader community of small farmers, winemakers, brewers, distillers, and others who have committed their lives to crafting the exceptional products that we have the privilege to represent.

- John Stanley -

- THE STANLEY’S STANDARD FOR EVERY WINE WE SELL

It’s easy to be confused by all the jargon surrounding wine. As it turns out, wine is pretty complicated. To cut through all the noise, we’ve created a simple standard and set of principles (yes, with lots of layers behind them - read on below), that every wine we sell MUST conform to - otherwise it simply doesn’t make the cut. This necessarily means that 90% of wine produced in the world won’t even be evaluated by our team, since they don’t conform to these standards (and yes, that means almost all the wine you’d find at your local grocery or convenience store).

So let’s break it down:

EXCEPTIONAL FARMING - Organic farming is the baseline for sourcing all of our wines. If it’s not at least organically farmed, we don’t carry it. Many come from biodynamic, regenerative, or dry-farmed vineyards (read below for explanations of these). We do not, however, require that all farmers be certified organic (or biodynamic for that matter) in order to make the cut. It turns out that getting certified can often be cost prohibitive for some growers, while some just prefer to mix and match principles coming from several disciplines into their farming practices, or they’re just old school and don’t need no stinkin’ certification! So we rely on our relationships with our importing and distribution partners who have intimate knowledge of each producer’s farming and winemaking practices to guide our decision-making.

SIMPLE WINEMAKING - At it’s core, this means that we only sell naturally fermented wines with no additions, save for small additions of sulfur dioxide in some of the wines. Read below for more details, but rest assured - if there’s too much tinkering going on in the winery, we don’t carry it. Just fermented grape juice!

FROM GREAT PEOPLE - It turns out that, lucky for you, pretty much all of the great wine in the world is produced by small farmers and independent, small wineries. Often it’s a one-person show doing all of the farming and winemaking. So we celebrate the community of small farmers and winemakers who devote their lives to crafting exceptional wines by only carrying wine from that community. If it’s not at least family owned and run, we don’t carry it (sorry, not sorry to you all you corporate brands).

A note about natural wine:
OK, So... are all your wines natural? Our answer - yes! But the term “natural wine” does not have strict definitions. Some natural wine aficionados will have a stricter definition of what qualifies as a “natural” wine than we do. Check out the details below to see if you agree with our definition (we think you will)!

Interested to learn more? Read on!