Sonoma Roche Family Winery

Roche was the second winery we took in on New Years Day. This winery is right in downtown Sonoma just off the famous Sonoma plaza. It offers both indoor and outdoor tasting. It was a beautiful day, so we opted to sit outside. The patio was quaint and had picnic tables, a fire pit and trees with a large tree growing right in the center. Here is a picture of it: 

It is super casual and a different experience than going to the actual vineyard. I prefer going to the winery and seeing the gorgeous landscape and the little grapes working away on the vines.
However, since we only took in two wineries that day it was a nice juxtaposition. We enjoyed walking down the main street and seeing the shops and the park and stopping to taste some wine.

When we got there our baby somehow had no milk and because it was New Years Day many places were not open. It was surprisingly hard to get milk. One place was "sold out." We eventually found some in a hotel restaurant. Needless to say the happy wine buzz we had on our faces from the previous winery, B.R. COHN, had worn off.

So, it was a nice treat to sit outside at Roche with the setting sun and the happy patrons. There was a lively group of people sitting around the fire pit celebrating a 40th Birthday party. A couple of older ladies in the corner who seemed quite sloshed, a gay couple with their dog sitting at a nearby picnic table, a family with a baby in the corner and a couple at a hightop table in the other corner. I found a spot in the shade near the gay couple and my husband went to get the tastings. He came back with my favorite varietal - Chardonnay. This was the 2010 Carneros Estate Chardonnay. We went home with a bottle.

Ahhh... a buttery, savory Chardonnay, a setting sun, my loving family, baby happy with a full bottle of milk and we settled in.

The Roche Family Winery is still owned and operated by the Roche family and their wine is not sold in stores. They offer bike tours of the vineyards if you would like to do that. They also make olive oil. I sampled one that was extremely delicious.  I didn't take home a bottle though, because I had just purchased the lemon infused oil from B.R. COHN.

NOW FOR THE WINE!

It was $5 to taset 6 wines and they waive the tasting fee if you buy a bottle. Good deal. 

I tried four wines instead of six, because they were sold out of a few. 

1/ 2010 Carneros Estate Chardonnay $23.95/bottle. 

I went home with a bottle of this stuff. Has a nice mixture of fruit, vanilla and caramel. 

I also tried the Pinot Noir, A Cabernet Sauvignon and a Muscat dessert wine. They were sold out of a few whites and reds so we tried the Muscat dessert wine which I hate! I don't like sweet wine. Oh well. Drank it anyways. lol. My husband, who is not a drunk, left his.

The Pinot Noir was forgettable but the Cabernet Sauvignon was quite good! Earthy and robust. 

We had a fun time and the elderly drunk ladies fell in love with our baby, who was now out of the stroller and walking around with her bugaboo and the empty milk cup. She was smiling and flirting with everyone and these ladies adored her.

These two women were strange though. They reminded me a bit of the witches around the cauldron in Macbeth. Not sure what happened to the third one. They started talking to us when they heard we had just moved to town from NYC and then the two gay men on the other side of us got interested. They started chatting to us about places to go and see in San Francisco.

We stayed much longer than we would have as we were engaged in stimulating conversation and the baby was happy. We told us about Bartholomew Park Winery where you can take a hike and then have a glass of vino. We will go there next and review it for you. We also got the hot tip to check out Rams Gate Winery. It looks lovely and I will review it soon as well.  They officially opened for business on Sept.16th and they took over the old Roche Winery site! Aha. They're the culprits!! So where did Roche's vines go?? Not sure.

One of the men told me how his mom knew he was gay at the age of 2 years old, because he was playing with pots and pans and his mom took him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist told her not to worry and that if he was "gay" then that is who he was and there was nothing she could do. This was back when being gay was still considered a disease. Back in the 1960's. So it was lovely that the psychiatrist was so open. Perhaps he too was gay? Anyways when he came out to his mother, she told him she knew he was gay since he was two years old. 

Too much information? Sorry, but these are the types of connections you can make when drinking wine on a sunny afternoon in Sonoma!

Soon after this, one of the witch ladies came over and picked up my baby... then she told me to wait before having another child because this one is "strong." Okay...

Anyhoodle. Back to the winery!

MY RATING: 

I give this winery 2 stars. The wines were okay, the atmosphere was nice and pleasant, but it could have been a restaurant on any main street in any small town. I didn't get that Sonoma winery feel that you crave when you drive out there.  As well, there is something to be said for labels and their bottles are a little boring. Here is a picture: