RAS Wines

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Country of Origin: USA
Location: Portland
People: Dan Roche, Joe Appel & Emily Smith, Owners & Winemakers
Viticulture: Certified Organic

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RAS Wines is a collaboration between Dan Roche, Joe Appel, and Emily Smith.

Dan and Joe met years ago while working as cooks at a neighborhood grocery. They bonded quickly over shared tastes in music, including The Mountain Goats and Bob Dylan, as well as their love for authors like Don DeLillo. Their friendship grew, and soon they found a new passion to explore together: wine. A few years later, Emily joined the same company, drawn in by similar interests and energy, and quickly became part of the crew.

Now, after more than a decade, hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of shared bottles, countless book, movie, and music recommendations, and a friendship that's shaped their lives, Dan (the "R"), Joe (the "A"), and Emily (the "S") decided to transform their passions into their profession. RAS is the result of dreamers, travelers, and seekers who believe in choosing to do what you love now, not later. It’s built on love, friendship, and connection.

Dan, Joe, and Emily are tradition-minded winemakers creating unique, delicious wines that capture the spirit of Maine. Using locally grown wild blueberries, which have been part of Maine’s history, geography, and culture for over 10,000 years, RAS Wines is grounded in Maine’s legacy and landscape. They work with small organic farms in Maine’s Mid-Coast and Downeast regions to source their blueberries.

RAS Wines are crafted from field blends of multiple lowbush blueberry varieties, yielding complex flavors that embody the essence of Maine. These blueberry bushes grow on rugged, pine-lined slopes near the Atlantic Ocean, and the wine captures the taste of the land: ambrosial, herbal, saline, sweet. Thanks to their high acidity, small size (for an ideal skin-to-juice ratio), deep flavor, and low sugar content, wild Maine blueberries are perfect for making fine sparkling and aromatized wines.

Media Links
Wine Enthusiast: Climate Change, Fermented Blueberries and Wine’s Existential Quandary
The Maine Mag: Wild Blueberry Wine is Becoming Maine’s Hot New Commodity