Roche Carneros Estate Winery

After practicing medicine in San Francisco for many years, Doctors Joseph and Genevieve Roche yearned to purchase a place in the country to escape to on the weekends with their young family. Because both were raised in farming families, they searched for a piece of property where they could raise fruit crops and have a small farm. In 1976, they looked at a large estate in southern Sonoma Valley, and because locals had assumed this area was an unfavorable region for grape growing, it was being offered for quite a bargain. Since the Roche family had no real intention of ever growing grapes, they fell in love with this property because of its beautiful rolling hills, streams, valleys, and proximity to San Francisco. The property was purchased by Joseph and Genevieve that same year, and by the following year, they made the decision to call it home and move their young family there permanently.