With our second release of our popular Nouveau Pinot Noir, still inspired by the young, fresh and fun style of Beaujolais wines, we are often asked about its unique style and the meaning of “nouveau”. Our winemaker Michael Carr will touch on the winemaking style in his article, however, I’ll tackle the meaning of the word nouveau and its relevance especially this time of year at Roche Winery. The English translation from the French word nouveau is “new”, the Mariam Webster Dictionary defines it as “New and different, often fashionably so”, and its Latin form novellus means "young, tender (of plants or animals)”. For Roche Winery, it represents the newest released wine of our 2024 vintage and our first glimpse of what is in store for our other 2024 wines still aging in the cellar. This release also coincides with other “nouveau” happenings in and around the vineyard and winery.

The timing of this release brings new life in our vineyard as our 2025 Vintage vigorously takes shape with shoots already filling the canopy after bud break occurred in mid-March. New to our annual Spring Fling event, coming this May 2nd-4th at the winery, we are extending the invitation to your friends. As always, you and one guest our complimentary, but new for this event we invite you to bring up to four additional guests for a small per guest fee (fee waived if your friend(s) joins the wine club or Futures program), we hope you and your friends can join us! Outside of the winery and vineyard, the 2025 North Coast Wine Challenge introduced a new class in their competition this year, with their “Nouveau Red” category. I am happy to report Roche Winery took “Best of Class” in this category with our 2023 Nouveau Pinot Noir! Our Nouveau took the top prize in this category, competing with wines from Napa, Sonoma, Marin, Lake and Mendocino Counties! Judges gave it a score of 97 Points, with their notes: “Yummylicious, sassy, and very pretty. Gentle floral, smooth finish. Aromatic.” Not bad for our first release of our Pinot Noir Nouveau!

Please enjoy this second club shipment of 2025, hopefully bringing to you some great new wines to enjoy with some beautiful spring weather. We all look forward to seeing you soon, either at our tasting room or our upcoming Spring Fling event!