In 1987, Joseph and Genevieve Roche founded and built Roche Winery. With an initial production of only 2,000 cases of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, they grew the brand to offer several additional varieties including Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet, Zinfandel, Muscat Canelli and Gewürztraminer. It was never their intention to mass-distribute their wines, rather, they chose to sell their family’s wines directly to their customers. Joseph and Genevieve loved to entertain and hosted thousands of Roche customers over the years at winery events to thank them for their loyalty to Roche Winery.
This tradition continues today, over 30 years later, as the second generation of the Roche family has assumed ownership and manages the day-to-day winery operations. Following in the footsteps of Genevieve and Joseph, the family and staff take pride in offering a uniquely genuine, welcoming and unpretentious experience for all who visit the Roche tasting room. Roche Winery continues to grow under the direction of Joseph and Genevieve’s son, Brendan Roche, as their new Sonoma Valley Winery is set to open to the public in Summer of 2019, and their production now exceeds 18,000 cases per year.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
@Winedavid49 Yes, barrel samples during the Square walk-around, but with poor $$ discount offers for the tourists unless you joined their club.
Klez should better recall the details.
@rjquillin@Winedavid49 yes to all that. I also took a group there during grad school. I’ve also bought futures from them a couple times, including their Merlot reserve. They threw a nice party for the futures release!
@rjquillin Yes, I joined their club for a couple of years, until I downsized, and they didn’t make the cut. The last I recall, it was a very good Carneros Pinot, but I’ve been leaning toward Old World more.
@rjquillin@WkdPanda And they’ve moved more toward fruit forwardness, also.
I have always preferred their Merlot because it’s always had a distinct blueberry note I enjoy. They also used to do a French oak and American oak Chardonnay that were otherwise identical, which I quite liked having the ability to compare.
Good evening (night) CaseMateys!
I am honored to report for Lab Rat duty once again! I am the lucky recipient of a lovely bottle of 2019 Roche Winery & Vineyards Pinot Noir, Tipperary Vineyard, Carneros. Now, you may or may not have noticed over the years that I rarely drink on weeknights. This wine is well worth the sacrifice and, who knows, may help me sleep a bit better tonight!. Happy to “take one for the team”! Bottle arrived yesterday and spent a little time sitting on my kitchen counter relaxing before this evening’s tasting.
On pop and pour the nose was a bit earthy with fruity undertones, The “earthy” notes didn’t seem to linger for very long. For the remainder of the evening tasting (over a period of ~4 hours), the nose was dominated by bright cherry with some darker fruit notes of (maybe) blackberry and plum chiming in. Perhaps some strawberry, too. I often find some floral notes in pinot, but did not on pop and pour tonight. There was some vaguely floral/perfumey note that showed up a few hours later, but I can’t identify what it was.
Palate starts out tart and very smooth. Nice acid background, nicely integrated tannins. Cherry and raspberry are dominant on the palate. Perhaps some cranberry?
This evening, I paired it with some sliced tenderloin (tips) with mushrooms over linguine, and salad (aka green stuff). Nice pairing.
Also on the short list of tasting accoutrements:
-Marcona almonds - decent, but I kinda wish I had some cashews
-Milk chocolate with “salty toffee” bits - pretty good…not my favorite (dark chocolate would be better)
-Dark chocolate sea salt caramel (Candy Basket) - Getting better(sooooo the chocolate options readily available got me thinking about an even better possibility…dark chocolate croissant…which I just happen to have in my freezer)
-Dark chocolate croissant - Now we’re talking!!!
-Cocktail cherries - YUM!
-One of my usual Pinot tasting options is Frosted Cherry Pop Tarts. I don’t have any on-hand, but I am certain it would be a perfect match!
Thus far, this is a lovely pinot. Easy to drink with a few years aging on board, but interesting and complex enough to keep your (my) attention. I have reserved about 1/3 of the bottle for tomorrow. I will add notes when I can. I don’t expect to be home from work before 6-7pm (stupid traffic!!!).
As always, thank you to WineDavid, Alice and the folks at Roche for the opportunity to contribute to this amazing community!
@karenhynes I would have never thought of Pop Tarts as a pairing choice for wine! I don’t have any frosted cherry Pop Tarts either, but I do have some strawberry…wonder how those would go with a red wine (and what grape varietal)?
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve Duo - $40 = 14.81%
I am the lucky recipient of a golden ticket e-mail from Alice. With a UPS delay, I have had the bottle for under 10 hours before the offering went live. Does it pair well with breakfast cereal? Maybe. Furthermore, we are currently living out of one bedroom while the rest of the house is being gutted. Dust and dirt everywhere. So when I say this lovely wine has chalky tannins, full disclosure my living situation can only be described as chalky. Duty calls; I gave it my best.
I open the box to see a Sonoma Pinot with a classy label with little information. I am unfamiliar with the winery, but knowing Carneros + Pinot and a bottle that wasn’t adorned with 99 points James Suckling was promising. The back of the bottle has no descriptors, stories of the vineyard, or anything about the contents other than the 14.5% ABV. A non-800 number and a website. I like this kind of labeling. (Now that I see it offered, I think it was a miss to not include the <600 cases produced on the label.)
Natural cork with the winery logo on it. Initial pour is boozy and closed. This is going to need some time to open up (which, I do not have, grrr.) I am getting some deep dark blue fruits, but aromas of forest, attic, old books and deeper bass notes are more prevalent than any fruits.
About an hour after opening, I shared some with friends who are admittedly not wine drinkers and were intimidated to have to use wine terms. I said there is no time for me to find snobs to share; I am looking for a simple good or bad. My buddy said he felt like the grapes were slow roasted over a campfire. So, let’s say: stewed fruit, jammy, etc. for him. His wife said it was delicious; “you never give us bad wine, but this is one of the better ones.” I picked up some rosemary and sage, more forest, and blueberries.
A few hours after opening, my better-half arrived to save the day. We did not have a dinner planned around the wine; we had hash browns with cheese and quorn buffalo chicken patties. Hardly a pairing made for a single-vineyard Carneros Pinot. If I tell you it was an aged Wisconsin sharp cheddar paired with cruelty-free alternative meat and home-made giardiniera, you can set your mind palace up with nicer furniture.
She said that it reminded her of wet earth, petrichor, library, and bay leaf. She said the dark fruits were jammy. We detected raspberry, plum, blueberry. The tannins were chalky to me, medium to her, but absolutely wonderful post spicy meal. She said it had completely cleaned her palate. One of the better comments about mouthfeel was “the mouthfeel has that silky luxurious Fiji water feeling.” She felt it would be a wonderful wine to read a book: easy to drink with the aromas mimicking a cozy book-loft. Despite the abundance of tastes and aromas, the finish was not incredibly long. It leaves you wanting more. We paired it with some coffee-bean dark chocolate after dinner, and it was delicious. It brought out the fruits, which despite our previously-thought-of-as-decent palates, we did not detect cherry. To each their own.
I really wish I had more time to plan a more appropriate meal to pair with, and get some of my usual suspects to help, but this is what I’ve got. This is a very good wine. I think it needs some time to open up. It is a complex wine if you want to think about it, with spices, herbs, earth complementing the fruits; it is also an easy sipping velvety quaffer. The bottle aesthetics were noted by all as classy and good gifting.
We saved a half-bottle for the day of the offering, which we will revisit ASAP. Thanks so much Alice, WD, and Roche.
*I can’t upload images. The links aren’t working to imgur. Sigh.
[mod edit; the link must have a valid image format to work]
Delicious Pinot, (I had the Langford one) first day had a slight smoke to the taste, some darker fruits, baking spice and an earthy leathery taste. Second day the earth and leather and smoke wasn’t there and it was more sour cherry.
This is a very delicious wine and I enjoyed it on both days, my wife enjoyed the complexity and taste more on the first day on opening. Definitely buying 6
Also thank you for the opportunity as always and sorry this was late, has to take my son to the doctor for flu.
@kray05 My better half poured herself a small sip before work this morning, and said that she liked it better last night. She felt the smoke / attic / etc had dissipated as well. I poured myself a small glass and concur (roughly 24 hours after opening, but it was poured full into a 350ml glass container with a cap).
I am getting a brighter red cherry vibe now, with the herbs still present. Will post some more in a few hours with some food.
Apparently a bottle was shipped and in route in time for me to give you guys all the delicious details. UPS had other ideas. Long story short it’s Friday afternoon and it will not arrive today. Or tomorrow. Or even early next week. Sigh. It’s at UPS, but they no longer have a counter to pick up packages, and I won’t be home to sign for their attempt. I tried rerouting it to pick it up at an UPS access-point but they won’t accept wine. It’s a big mess! I’m looking into another shipping address for future deliveries but I guess I missed out on this one. Looks good though…maybe I’ll grab a case and try it later.
@kasandrae Recently had this situation with the Negociant Vertical. Put a note on my door as we would be away for all the usual three tries and you’re OUT. Got three notices, and yet, my kind local UPS folks did the fourth delivery. Our local counter also closed (turns out, our route guy took over the counter several years ago, so I got to see him from time to time.) I thought my wine was lost to the ether, yet UPS came through.
2019 Roche Pinot Noir Reserve, Tipperary Vineyard, Carneros
Tasting Notes
Specs
2019 Roche Pinot Noir Reserve, Longford Vineyard, Carneros
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$684.00/Case for 6x 2019 Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve, Tipperary Vineyard, Carneros + 6x 2019 Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve, Longford Vineyard, Carneros at Roche Winery
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Mar 24 - Tuesday, Mar 25
Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve Duo
4 bottles for $89.99 $22.50/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $229.99 $19.17/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2019 Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve, Tipperary Vineyard
2019 Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve, Longford Vineyard
@klezman
This was an RPM Sonoma Square tour stop in what, 2014 or earlier?
@rjquillin was it?
@Winedavid49 Yes, barrel samples during the Square walk-around, but with poor $$ discount offers for the tourists unless you joined their club.
Klez should better recall the details.
@rjquillin @Winedavid49 yes to all that. I also took a group there during grad school. I’ve also bought futures from them a couple times, including their Merlot reserve. They threw a nice party for the futures release!
@Winedavid49 thanks for the card
@rjquillin Yes, I joined their club for a couple of years, until I downsized, and they didn’t make the cut. The last I recall, it was a very good Carneros Pinot, but I’ve been leaning toward Old World more.
@rjquillin @WkdPanda And they’ve moved more toward fruit forwardness, also.
I have always preferred their Merlot because it’s always had a distinct blueberry note I enjoy. They also used to do a French oak and American oak Chardonnay that were otherwise identical, which I quite liked having the ability to compare.
Good evening (night) CaseMateys!
I am honored to report for Lab Rat duty once again! I am the lucky recipient of a lovely bottle of 2019 Roche Winery & Vineyards Pinot Noir, Tipperary Vineyard, Carneros. Now, you may or may not have noticed over the years that I rarely drink on weeknights. This wine is well worth the sacrifice and, who knows, may help me sleep a bit better tonight!. Happy to “take one for the team”! Bottle arrived yesterday and spent a little time sitting on my kitchen counter relaxing before this evening’s tasting.
On pop and pour the nose was a bit earthy with fruity undertones, The “earthy” notes didn’t seem to linger for very long. For the remainder of the evening tasting (over a period of ~4 hours), the nose was dominated by bright cherry with some darker fruit notes of (maybe) blackberry and plum chiming in. Perhaps some strawberry, too. I often find some floral notes in pinot, but did not on pop and pour tonight. There was some vaguely floral/perfumey note that showed up a few hours later, but I can’t identify what it was.
Palate starts out tart and very smooth. Nice acid background, nicely integrated tannins. Cherry and raspberry are dominant on the palate. Perhaps some cranberry?
This evening, I paired it with some sliced tenderloin (tips) with mushrooms over linguine, and salad (aka green stuff). Nice pairing.
Also on the short list of tasting accoutrements:
-Marcona almonds - decent, but I kinda wish I had some cashews
-Milk chocolate with “salty toffee” bits - pretty good…not my favorite (dark chocolate would be better)
-Dark chocolate sea salt caramel (Candy Basket) - Getting better(sooooo the chocolate options readily available got me thinking about an even better possibility…dark chocolate croissant…which I just happen to have in my freezer)
-Dark chocolate croissant - Now we’re talking!!!
-Cocktail cherries - YUM!
-One of my usual Pinot tasting options is Frosted Cherry Pop Tarts. I don’t have any on-hand, but I am certain it would be a perfect match!
Thus far, this is a lovely pinot. Easy to drink with a few years aging on board, but interesting and complex enough to keep your (my) attention. I have reserved about 1/3 of the bottle for tomorrow. I will add notes when I can. I don’t expect to be home from work before 6-7pm (stupid traffic!!!).
As always, thank you to WineDavid, Alice and the folks at Roche for the opportunity to contribute to this amazing community!
Cheers!
K
@karenhynes I would have never thought of Pop Tarts as a pairing choice for wine! I don’t have any frosted cherry Pop Tarts either, but I do have some strawberry…wonder how those would go with a red wine (and what grape varietal)?
@karenhynes @TimW
PopTarts are great with wine, although I prefer unfrosted.
@karenhynes @TimW Onesta Cinsault for your strawberry box.
@char2na @karenhynes @TimW
Or a Grenache.
/showme a pop tart drinking a glass of wine
@mediocrebot perfect
/showme a bottle of wine eating a pop tart
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
Roche Winery Pinot Noir Reserve Duo - $40 = 14.81%
2019 Roche Reserve Pinot Noir Longford Vineyard
I am the lucky recipient of a golden ticket e-mail from Alice. With a UPS delay, I have had the bottle for under 10 hours before the offering went live. Does it pair well with breakfast cereal? Maybe. Furthermore, we are currently living out of one bedroom while the rest of the house is being gutted. Dust and dirt everywhere. So when I say this lovely wine has chalky tannins, full disclosure my living situation can only be described as chalky. Duty calls; I gave it my best.
I open the box to see a Sonoma Pinot with a classy label with little information. I am unfamiliar with the winery, but knowing Carneros + Pinot and a bottle that wasn’t adorned with 99 points James Suckling was promising. The back of the bottle has no descriptors, stories of the vineyard, or anything about the contents other than the 14.5% ABV. A non-800 number and a website. I like this kind of labeling. (Now that I see it offered, I think it was a miss to not include the <600 cases produced on the label.)
Natural cork with the winery logo on it. Initial pour is boozy and closed. This is going to need some time to open up (which, I do not have, grrr.) I am getting some deep dark blue fruits, but aromas of forest, attic, old books and deeper bass notes are more prevalent than any fruits.
About an hour after opening, I shared some with friends who are admittedly not wine drinkers and were intimidated to have to use wine terms. I said there is no time for me to find snobs to share; I am looking for a simple good or bad. My buddy said he felt like the grapes were slow roasted over a campfire. So, let’s say: stewed fruit, jammy, etc. for him. His wife said it was delicious; “you never give us bad wine, but this is one of the better ones.” I picked up some rosemary and sage, more forest, and blueberries.
A few hours after opening, my better-half arrived to save the day. We did not have a dinner planned around the wine; we had hash browns with cheese and quorn buffalo chicken patties. Hardly a pairing made for a single-vineyard Carneros Pinot. If I tell you it was an aged Wisconsin sharp cheddar paired with cruelty-free alternative meat and home-made giardiniera, you can set your mind palace up with nicer furniture.
She said that it reminded her of wet earth, petrichor, library, and bay leaf. She said the dark fruits were jammy. We detected raspberry, plum, blueberry. The tannins were chalky to me, medium to her, but absolutely wonderful post spicy meal. She said it had completely cleaned her palate. One of the better comments about mouthfeel was “the mouthfeel has that silky luxurious Fiji water feeling.” She felt it would be a wonderful wine to read a book: easy to drink with the aromas mimicking a cozy book-loft. Despite the abundance of tastes and aromas, the finish was not incredibly long. It leaves you wanting more. We paired it with some coffee-bean dark chocolate after dinner, and it was delicious. It brought out the fruits, which despite our previously-thought-of-as-decent palates, we did not detect cherry. To each their own.
I really wish I had more time to plan a more appropriate meal to pair with, and get some of my usual suspects to help, but this is what I’ve got. This is a very good wine. I think it needs some time to open up. It is a complex wine if you want to think about it, with spices, herbs, earth complementing the fruits; it is also an easy sipping velvety quaffer. The bottle aesthetics were noted by all as classy and good gifting.
We saved a half-bottle for the day of the offering, which we will revisit ASAP. Thanks so much Alice, WD, and Roche.
*I can’t upload images. The links aren’t working to imgur. Sigh.
[mod edit; the link must have a valid image format to work]
@KNmeh7 u weren’t kidding with the “gutted” comment (at least from the photos)!
Delicious Pinot, (I had the Langford one) first day had a slight smoke to the taste, some darker fruits, baking spice and an earthy leathery taste. Second day the earth and leather and smoke wasn’t there and it was more sour cherry.
This is a very delicious wine and I enjoyed it on both days, my wife enjoyed the complexity and taste more on the first day on opening. Definitely buying 6
Also thank you for the opportunity as always and sorry this was late, has to take my son to the doctor for flu.
@kray05
Curious as to how it was stored between day one and two.
About half empty and just recorked at RT on the counter perhaps?
@kray05 My better half poured herself a small sip before work this morning, and said that she liked it better last night. She felt the smoke / attic / etc had dissipated as well. I poured myself a small glass and concur (roughly 24 hours after opening, but it was poured full into a 350ml glass container with a cap).
I am getting a brighter red cherry vibe now, with the herbs still present. Will post some more in a few hours with some food.
@rjquillin not gonna lie, it wasn’t even recorked, just counter RT about a third of it saves for day 2
How to become a Rat?
@user12967694 @WCCWineGirl
you could tag Alice here
this is a killer deal if i do say so myself.
Apparently a bottle was shipped and in route in time for me to give you guys all the delicious details. UPS had other ideas. Long story short it’s Friday afternoon and it will not arrive today. Or tomorrow. Or even early next week. Sigh. It’s at UPS, but they no longer have a counter to pick up packages, and I won’t be home to sign for their attempt. I tried rerouting it to pick it up at an UPS access-point but they won’t accept wine. It’s a big mess! I’m looking into another shipping address for future deliveries but I guess I missed out on this one. Looks good though…maybe I’ll grab a case and try it later.
@kasandrae Recently had this situation with the Negociant Vertical. Put a note on my door as we would be away for all the usual three tries and you’re OUT. Got three notices, and yet, my kind local UPS folks did the fourth delivery. Our local counter also closed (turns out, our route guy took over the counter several years ago, so I got to see him from time to time.) I thought my wine was lost to the ether, yet UPS came through.
I see SoCal is lit up.
Are there any bottles available for a 1/3 (4 bottle) split?