The Vineyard That Waited: Honoring Joe Rochioli with a Remarkable Pinot Noir
When ripening mysteriously paused at Old River Vineyard, it felt like a tribute in the making. What followed was a once-in-a-generation wine that captures the soul of the Russian River Valley
The vineyard just stopped.
Ripening suddenly stalled at Old River Vineyard—an iconic site in the famed Rochioli Vineyard in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley. All growing season, the block had tracked perfectly alongside its New River Vineyard counterpart.
Old River is planted to the Pommard clone, while New River grows the 777 clone. Both are esteemed, but Old River held a deeper connection—it was planted in 1982 by pioneering viticulturist Joe Rochioli and was, by all accounts, his favorite block.
Then something strange happened.
“As Joe became ill, that vineyard just stopped ripening,” said Brent McKoy, winemaker at Gary Farrell. “That was really Joe’s pet block, and it just shut down. I remember thinking, ‘What is going on here? We need this to go.’ We kept sampling, but nothing changed.”
Inexplicably, nothing progressed—until the day after Joe Rochioli’s funeral.
“We picked the site the next day,” McKoy said. “Everything started to ripen again. We kept the two blocks separate, and they turned out really well. We’ve never had that happen. Maybe Joe was saying, ‘Hang on a minute.’”
What resulted was something extraordinary.
Each block underwent a separate fermentation, and McKoy described them as having “a wonderful, unique quality.” After 15 months in barrel, two were selected for a limited cuvée—a tribute to Rochioli’s legacy. The result:
Gary Farrell 2022 Russian River Valley “Honoring A Legend” Pinot Noir
($105 | Only 46 cases produced)
It’s a wine that captures the power of the Russian River Valley in a remarkably graceful and elegant way. The craft cherry soda flavors are pure and vibrant. The mouthfeel is silky yet structured—robust without being overimposing. On the palate: cherry cola, cranberry, and cherry, layered with rustic leather and spice. It’s a wine of balance and soul, from a vineyard that held a legend’s heart.
The relationship between Gary Farrell Winery and the Rochioli family dates back to that very first planting in 1982. Every year since, a simple handshake has sealed the agreement to purchase fruit—a rarity in today’s era of contracts and legalese.
“It’s a rustic, charming, and pretty spot,” McKoy said. “It’s beautiful land, but if you walk the vineyard and look around at the vines, they’re not immaculate and perfect. There’s a wildness to it. The Rochioli family is so attuned, so intimately involved with the vines on a day-to-day basis. You can’t quantify why the wine is so great—but this is a special place.”
Just steps away, other vineyards may share the same geography, but they don’t yield the same complexity or finesse. Maybe it’s the river’s influence. Maybe it’s the centuries of sediment in the soil. Or maybe it’s clonal selection—just the right vines planted in just the right spots.
But most likely, it’s all of those things. Combined with the masterful touch of Joe Rochioli and the decades-long bond with Gary Farrell Winery, this wine is a lasting tribute to a life rooted in the land.