In 2000 Roger Roessler, a longtime restaurateur with projects spread across the western part of the country, and his brother Richard, an electrical engineer and hobbyist winemaker, created Roessler Cellars, dedicated primarily to the kind of food-friendly Pinot Noir on which Roger had built wine lists for his restaurants. Roger’s restaurant interests included a share in the historic Swiss Hotel on Sonoma’s town square, where the Sangiacomo family, Carneros’ largest independent grape growers, were regular customers. When it occurred to Roger that he might like to make wine, Angelo Sangiacomo did not hesitate to offer him four and a half tons of pinot noir. On the strength of this offer, the brothers formed the winery, enlisted Wells Guthrie of Copain Wines as their winemaker, and began an expansion that encompassed, just seven years later, no fewer than eleven acclaimed and award winning vineyard-designated pinots sourced from Willamette Valley to the Santa Rita Hills, five appellation pinots with proprietary names, and a dribble of chardonnay. The Roesslers purchased forty acres near Annapolis, in the Sonoma Coast, and fourteen acres in Carneros (near Winedavid39’s jog path), where they began planting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in 2003.

 

With offices on the beautiful plaza in Sonoma, The winemaking is now headed up by full time winemaker Scott Shapley, who is Gutherie’s brother in law and Roessler Cellars has become one of the premiere producers of hand crafted Pinot Noir’s in the U.S. sourcing fruit from many of the finest coastal vineyards.