OUR STORY

Pénélope and Dylan Roche, the owners, winemakers, and vignerons at Roche Wines, brought their sustainable farming practices and traditional French savoir-faire to Okanagan terroir in 2011.

The Family Behind Roche Wines

Dylan and Pénélope Roche had extensive experience in their own project. Pénélope is a trained viticulturist and winemaker from Bordeaux, France. For six generations her family-owned Chateau Les Carmes Haut-Brion, an exquisite vineyard and winery in the Graves appellation whose history dates back to the Roman times. Born into the winemaking tradition, Pénélope studied oenology in Bordeaux and made wine in Spain, New Zealand, and Australia. Born in Vancouver, Dylan found his passion for wine while working for an active travel company in the heart of Burgundy, France, as a bicycle mechanic. Earning his diploma in viticulture and winemaking in Beaune, he apprenticed in Chablis and New Zealand before relocating to Bordeaux. He taught wine appreciation classes in Pauillac and made wine in Margaux and Pessac-Leognan.

When Chateau Les Carmes Haut-Brion was sold in 2010, Dylan and Pénélope decided to pursue a common goal: to create their own winery at a family scale. Here in the Okanagan Valley, the wine industry was blossoming. Convinced of the potential of Okanagan wines, Dylan and Pénélope chose to put down new roots on the Naramata Bench, arriving from France in May 2011. As their plans developed, Dylan worked as a winemaker and Pénélope as a viticulture consultant, while making their first wines under the Roche label. Roche Wines grew steadily as a virtual label until 2017 when they opened the doors to a new winery building at their vineyard on the Naramata Bench.

“Our strength is our combination of experience in both vineyard management and winemaking,

and a precise appreciation of the link between the two. Our priority is hands-on organic farming, with traditional French ‘savoir-faire’, to make exceptional wines that express unique Okanagan terroirs.”

– Pénélope and Dylan Roche

Pénélope and Dylan have always worked with small lots, in direct contact with the vineyard. They are acutely aware of the details that make the difference between good and exceptional wine. They are ‘vignerons’ in the truest meaning of the word, committed to crafting wines from start to finish.

From their roots in Bordeaux and Burgundy to the emerging terroir of the Okanagan Valley, they continue to build an informed perspective, based on observation from the vineyard to the glass.