KITRI Spotlight: Abbie Roden

amie is a wine for friends, by friends, dreamt up during the first Covid-19 lockdown by husband and wife, Abbie & Will Sandbach. amie, meaning 'female friend' in French, is all about sharing (it's also our tipple of choice for this year's holiday dinner tablescape!)

We caught up with amie founder, Abbie, to find out more about amie's philanthropic initiatives, how she will be spending the holidays - and what she will be wearing...

We dreamt up amie—which in French means ‘female friend’—during lockdown, a time when we craved nothing more than to see our friends. It all started with a text from my husband, Will, that said 'come downstairs, I have a plan.' I totally thought we were going on an afternoon walk, and was definitely not expecting him to say 'let's create a rosé brand.' 6.5 weeks later we had launched amie.

Our main priority when building out the strategy for amie was that we wanted to create something that could help us give back -- our immediate thought was charity: water, as Will and I have both read Scott Harrison (charity: water Founder)'s book THIRST (highly recommended to everyone!), and charity: water holds a special place in our hearts. We are so thrilled that for every @drinkamie order we receive, we donate £1 to @charitywater, so by drinking amie, together we can give water. We have raised over £10K, which means we have raised enough to start building our own amie well.

Logistics were a challenge; we had to do all communication via Zoom and have the samples sent to us, when normally we would have gone to France to taste the wines and do the meetings in-person. Highlights: bringing joy to people with a fun new brand, all about friendship, during a time that was pretty grim! Our rosé sold out in 7 weeks which was a huge surprise and definitely a highlight that it was so well received!

Both! I have a lot of festive dinners and events on my calendar, but also can't wait to totally switch off and head home to Kentucky on December 12th. Then we'll be back in England for Christmas, cozy in the countryside by the fire!

I'm loving so many of the dresses - so perfect for festive dinners and Christmas Day! The Zip Collar Sweater looks SO dreamy and perfect for cosy evenings at home, drinking amie by the fire!

Abbie is wearing the Persephone Shirred Pink Sungod Dress and Lorna Ivory Alpaca Blend Zip Collar Sweater.

 
What’s up next for amie?

We have something very exciting happening next Spring... watch this space!