Wendy Peveich was never supposed to be here.
She was a cardiovascular nurse practitioner, working the front lines during COVID, putting herself through grad school on a $50 whiskey budget. The bottle of Blanton’s she received as a gift sparked curiosity. The frustration of never finding Buffalo Trace on Ohio shelves sparked something else—a stubborn determination to find what was actually good without chasing hype.
That accidental education became a podcast presence, then barrel picks, then brand ambassador work, then a national role helping build someone else’s company. And then, after four or five years of pouring blood and tears into another person’s dream, a question: Do I keep doing this for someone else, or do I bet on myself?
She bet on herself. The result is Archer Eland.
An Homage in Rye
The name is a living letter to her mother. Eland is Wendy. Archer is her mom—a woman whose work ethic and determination mirror the grain itself, thriving under harsh conditions.
“Culturally speaking, that’s kind of what you do,” Wendy told me. “You thank your parents for everything. And so this was my way of doing it through the nuance of rye.”
Archer Eland is a 100% rye whiskey brand. No corn. No wheat. No secondary grains. Just rye—95% unmalted, 5% malted—distilled and blended at Middle West Spirits in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a deliberate choice in a market that often treats rye as bourbon’s spicier sibling rather than a category worth exploring on its own terms.
“I traveled so much and I’d seen enough markets to know there was a need,” Wendy said. “Seas of bourbon on the shelves. Maybe one or two rye offerings. Pigeonholing is number one. Lack of diversity within the rye section is number two. I wanted to fix that.”
The Collection
Archer Eland launched with four expressions, each telling a different chapter of Wendy’s transition from healthcare to whiskey.
Solstice (104 proof) came first. Light. Citrus-forward. Floral. “I was wanting to hold onto hope,” Wendy said. “I was wanting to hold onto that warmth, that there’s something else on the horizon.” It blends four and seven-year barrels to create something delicate enough for the rye-curious but complex enough to reward attention.
Aurora (110 proof) was the problem child. It required four recalculations. The original yield was supposed to be 40 cases; Wendy blew through that and had to keep adjusting. At one point, exhausted and fed up, she told her team to just dump what was left of the seven-year barrels into the blend. Two days later, she tasted it and thought: This is really good.
“Aurora taught me to trust myself,” Wendy said. “It was a dark time. But I pulled through.”
Cashmere (126 proof, seven years) was supposed to be part of the same lot as Suede. When blended together, they were terrible. Split apart, they became two distinct expressions.
“That was the first time I thought, I’m going to be okay,“ Wendy said. “My first real exhale.”
Suede (126 proof, seven years) is the happy accident. Wendy remembers growing up in Zimbabwe, where tobacco auction floors stretched for miles and the smell of drying leaves changed with each stage of the harvest. Leather.
Suede is a one-and-done release. Once it’s gone, it’s never coming back.
First Generation
There’s a phrase you hear constantly in American whiskey: seventh generation, eighth generation, ninth generation. Families who have transcended time, who kept distilling through Prohibition and wars and market crashes. We honor those names.
But Wendy is building something different. She’s first generation. First of her name. An African woman in an industry where that’s almost unheard of, putting down stakes meant to outlast her.
“How many times have you ever seen a first of its name and it continuing to grow as a legacy?” she asked. “We love and admire those ones that have transcended time. But to actually see someone go through in real time, putting stakes, first generation? I’ve never seen it been done before like that.”
By the end of the year, Wendy will be laying down her own new make. She’s researching different rye varieties. She’s already running barrel modeling projections at 2 a.m. She recently bought her first finishing barrels—a purchase that triggered what she described as her first “hyperventilating episode.” The money was real. The stakes are real.
But so is the vision.
Where to Find Archer Eland
Archer Eland is available at 25 OHLQ stores across Ohio and online at shop.middlewestspirits.com (shipping available to Kentucky and other states). Cashmere is nearly sold out—down to roughly 10-18 bottles as of recording. Suede will take its place on allocation.
This is a brand built with intention. With purpose. With the kind of audacity that comes from betting on yourself when the safer path is right there waiting.
Wendy put it simply: “I only have one life. I don’t want to be on my death bed wishing I had done it.”
Listen to the full conversation: [Audio link] | [YouTube link]
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