When Joe Rochioli Jr. was growing up on the family farm in the 1940s, he had to travel to the one-room schoolhouse by horse, since there weren`t enough cars or roads in the area. Times have changed in the Russian River Valley town of Healdsburg. Among other crops, Joe`s family farm grew grapes, which his family sold to local wineries. Joe formed his own ideas about what would grow well, and in the 1960s, he took the risky decision of planting the little-known grape variety of Pinot Noir. He soon followed with some Chardonnay. Their grapes were popular. In the words of Joe`s son, Tom, `We knew the grapes were very good and were making great wines. I became convinced that we should make our own wine with the Rochioli name`. Rochioli was officially born in 1983, and Wine Spectator named their first estate Pinot `The Best Pinot Noir in America`. A few years after that, a trip to Burgundy convinced Tom that single vineyard wines `can produce remarkably different, and beautiful wines`. (NT 21/10/25)