Roche Winery sold out of bankruptcy

This is sad. I often enjoyed the hospitality of the winery and the Roche family. I fear that neck of the woods will be changing.

The sale of Roche Winery to HP Land LLC for $7 million closed last week.

Joseph and Genevieve Roche, together with their children, sold their Carneros-based winery, including 135 acres and a 6,700-square-foot winery production and tasting facility. The permitted capacity of the winery, located across from Infineon Raceway, is 30,000 cases.

HP Land LLC is a partnership that includes Jeff O'Neill of O'Neill Vintners and Distillers, according to industry sources. O'Neill Vintners and Distillers operates a bulk wine, custom processing and bulk storage facility in Reedley (Fresno County).

Read the whole article here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... N2H3R1.DTL

That actually sounds like a bargain price -- the land alone should sell for that much or more, assuming it is all suitable for planting.

That actually sounds like a bargain price -- the land alone should sell for that much or more, assuming it is all suitable for planting.

We can split it. You pay what's to the left of the decimal point and I'll pay everything to the right thereof.

We can split it. You pay what's to the left of the decimal point and I'll pay everything to the right thereof.

Your generosity is overwhelming during this holiday season....

It looks like land in the area is going for a little under a $1000 an acre, based on their offer of nearby property -- according to the article -- "Currently, a 1,600-acre parcel of the ranch is listed for sale for $15 million with Sotheby's."

If the two parcels are roughly comprable, the land value would be about $1.265 million.

As sellers in bankruptcy, the referee and the creditors would usually be very careful to maximize the sales price. But ... lots of speculation looking at the deal from New Jersey, a long long way from the southern Sonoma Valley.

PS: The listing for the large parcel makes interesting dreaming reading.

Sorry to hear this. I was only there a couple of times, but they were memorable. I still have a couple of bottles of their '95 pinot in my basement.

Mike

It looks like land in the area is going for a little under a $1000 an acre, based on their offer of nearby property -- according to the article -- "Currently, a 1,600-acre parcel of the ranch is listed for sale for $15 million with Sotheby's."

Again, this would depend on location and suitability of use. You will not find vineyard properties for anywhere close to that price, Bob. One Sonoma realtor states, "Land costs also can vary. We see highs reaching $30,000 to $75,000 per acre for bare land and upwards of $100,000 for high quality producing vineyards."

It looks like land in the area is going for a little under a $1000 an acre, based on their offer of nearby property -- according to the article -- "Currently, a 1,600-acre parcel of the ranch is listed for sale for $15 million with Sotheby's."

Again, this would depend on location and suitability of use. You will not find vineyard properties for anywhere close to that price, Bob. One Sonoma realtor states, "Land costs also can vary. We see highs reaching $30,000 to $75,000 per acre for bare land and upwards of $100,000 for high quality producing vineyards."

The ad fails to mention the proximity of the Infineon (f.k.a. Sear's Point) Raceway which is right across Arnold Drive from the winery. You can sit on the porch and watch the cars go round the track. There is one heck of a noise on race or practice days, not to mention the traffic on race days. Everything else in the ad is true and I wish I could bring up the dough to buy it.

The ad fails to mention the proximity of the Infineon (f.k.a. Sear's Point) Raceway which is right across Arnold Drive from the winery.

No problem -- pull out the vines and plant Riesling -- nice petrol accents to the apricot fruit....

The ad fails to mention the proximity of the Infineon (f.k.a. Sear's Point) Raceway which is right across Arnold Drive from the winery.

No problem -- pull out the vines and plant Riesling -- nice petrol accents to the apricot fruit....

I imagine one could get a bumper crop with the added whiff of chassis, although we should beware of chaptalization with une petite goutte de glycol de dégivrant.

This is indeed sad. Whenever I've visited Sonoma for wine tasting, I've driven up past Sears Point and I always made sure to stope at Roche Winery. Friendly folks, and good wine. But they only sold out of the winery, and that was probably their downfall. Or maybe they got hit hard by the Phylloxera epidemic that hit Carneros some years back?

-Paul W.

I imagine one could get a bumper crop with the added whiff of chassis, although we should beware of chaptalization with une petite goutte de glycol de dégivrant.

The ad fails to mention the proximity of the Infineon (f.k.a. Sear's Point) Raceway which is right across Arnold Drive from the winery.

No problem -- pull out the vines and plant Riesling -- nice petrol accents to the apricot fruit....

Nearby Cline owns ranch land, on which they keep some cattle, as well as vineyards. The ranch land abuts the Sear's Point Raceway complex. This has caused some friction with the raceway, the back-and forth argument going, "your cattle keep getting onto our land and disturbing the RV campers"; "that only happens because your race fans keep cutting our fences to sneak onto the Raceway".

The staff at the tasting room were treated to an amusing sight one NASCAR race weekend. They noticed some fans sneak over the fencing into one of the ranch fields, on the other side of which was the fence separating the ranch from the Raceway. What the race fans didn't see, or chose to ignore, was the bull at the top of the hill pawing the ground, shaking his head, and snorting. The bull charged them and chased them all the way across the field.

The Cline staff call this the "Running of the Rednecks".

-Paul W.

"Running of the Rednecks"

Sounds like a new spectator sport to be enjoyed with:

[img]http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i134/Randybuckner/beers_malleebull.jpg[/img]

I confess I never cared that much for the Roche wines. Yes, nice people, but their wines usually never amounted to much out of the ordinary.

[I've always thought it somewhat unfortunate that the two wineries/tasting rooms that were the first that Sonoma/Napa wine country tourists could see were the Roche and Viansa places. Dismaying for different reasons. Roche because it never quite lived up to expectations, and Viansa because the wines were unparalleled shit---but the place was beautiful. Fortunately, Cline, Gloria Ferrer and Schug are just up the road a few more feet.

Lots of stuff going on here: the proximity to Infineon has already been noted.

What hasn't been noted that I can see is that (1) the prime vineyard had to be totally taken out because of phylloxera (and possibly other problems, but I'm not certain). And (2) by no means is the total ranch acreage suitable for vineyards. Not even close. Some of it is actually going down into boggy land that is partially under water during part of the year, and it has terrible drainage. Not sure about the soil, but don't think it is suitable either. Another part of the ranch might have to be blasted out of the rock to provide a planting surface.

As a vineyard location, there are some serious considerations. There's a difference between acreage and vineyard acreage. As a cattle ranch, it might be better.

Infineon might be a draw for certain tourists to slop over into the winery, I suppose; I see it more as a negative though. But then I'm jaundiced because I have to drive by the place most every day, and when I see that ocean of RVs sitting at the foot of the hill upon which Roche is perched, the juxtaposition is, to say the least, jarring.

Hey, maybe that's where Mario Andretti should have established his winery?!?!!???!

" One Sonoma realtor states, "Land costs also can vary. We see highs reaching $30,000 to $75,000 per acre for bare land and upwards of $100,000 for high quality producing vineyards."

You are right, Randy. I misread my Excel worksheet. The 1600 acre parcel -- 400 to 500 acres that could be planted to vines -- works out to $93,750 an acre.

Good catch.

Infineon might be a draw for certain tourists to slop over into the winery, I suppose; I see it more as a negative though. But then I'm jaundiced because I have to drive by the place most every day, and when I see that ocean of RVs sitting at the foot of the hill upon which Roche is perched, the juxtaposition is, to say the least, jarring.

Hey, maybe that's where Mario Andretti should have established his winery?!?!!???!

Not that I have a grasp of these things, but wasn't Mario Andretti a Formula 1 racer? NASCAR might not be a good place for him.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only local-color-snob in the group. My personal sense of romanticism rejects and objects to that raceway being at the threshold of Sonoma wine country. Admittedly, it's an elitist and snooty attitude, but I guess we are all allowed to deceive ourselves in one way or another.

As Hoke said earlier, a lot of that land is used for horses and cattle. A lot of it is under water at certain times of the year. A lot of the land is too fertile for quality grapes. Premium vineyard sites seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Not that I have a grasp of these things, but wasn't Mario Andretti a Formula 1 racer? NASCAR might not be a good place for him.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only local-color-snob in the group. My personal sense of romanticism rejects and objects to that raceway being at the threshold of Sonoma wine country. Admittedly, it's an elitist and snooty attitude, but I guess we are all allowed to deceive ourselves in one way or another.

Which was there first the Sears Point Raceway or the vineyards? My guess is that the Raceway was probably there first, and then the vineyards gradually moved south when the California wine boom hit during the 1970s.

Mario Andretti indeed raced Formula 1 and Indy cars mainly, but he was one of a handful of talented drivers who could race anything with four wheels and an engine, and win. Of the big four prizes in motor racing (the Indy 500, the NASCAR Daytona 500, the 24 hours of Le Mans, the Formula One World Driver's Championship), he's one of only two drivers to win three of them--he won the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 (in a one-off drive!), and the F1 Championship. The other driver to win 3 of the 4 is A. J. Foyt, who won Indy, Daytona, and Le Mans. I think the only reason he didn't win the F1 Championship is that he never bothered to race in that series.

Mario would probably plant a vineyard next to Laguna Seca rather than Sears Point.

-Paul W.

Sears Point Raceway (later Infineon): 1968
Roche Carneros Estate Winery: 1977

No difference, though, it's still an eyesore and polluter in an otherwise idyllic landscape. But what do I know? I also don't like country clubs, golf courses, gated communities, HOA's and people who park in handicapped spots but ain't.

Fortunately, Cline, Gloria Ferrer and Schug are just up the road a few more feet.

Is Schug still around? It's been some years since I was last able to visit Sonoma in person. I always loved Shug's pinot noir (IMO one of the most Burgundian of all in Sonoma). Unfortunately he was completely shat on by Robert Parker for the mortal sin of making a pinot noir that didn't whomp you over the head with obvious "oodles of hedonistic" fruit, and as a consequence the national distribution of his wines dried up, so I was no longer able to find them here on the east coast.

He produced some glorious pinot noirs in the late 1980s.

-Paul W.

Is Schug still around? ... He produced some glorious pinot noirs in the late 1980s.

Still around -- I tried their 2001 and 2002 Reserve Pinots -- a B movie for my palate.

Sorry to see Roche Winery go down....I always liked visting them when in the Russian River area.

Tim:

Roche Winery isn't in the Russian River Valley area. It's in Carneros. The Sonoma part of Carneros. Just off Hwy. 37, and just north of San Pablo Bay.

The Russian River Valley AVA is about an hour away, north of Santa Rosa.

Paul: Yes, Schug is still around, and his business has revived somewhat. All things considered, his Pinots have gotten a bit fatter, but they are still somewhat leaning to the old world philosophy, i.e., more focused on the vinosity than the brimming fruitiness of over-ripe grapes.