Ep 188 Featuring Wine Enthusiast Person of the Year Gretchen Roddick

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷

Preroll content brought to you by Cork & Cruise and their Nov 2027 cruise featuring Epoch, LXV, and Adam Montiel

From a part-time tasting room job in Paso Robles to helping lead the entire California wine industry, Gretchen Roddick has built quite a career. And 2026 has turned into one heck of a year.

This week, Adam Montiel welcomes Gretchen, Executive Vice President of Hope Family Wines, newly elected Board Chair of the Wine Institute, and Wine Enthusiast’s 2026 Person of the Year. Recorded at SLOCAL Studios just days after the national announcement, it’s a candid conversation about nearly three decades of hard work, taking chances, building relationships, and helping put Paso Robles on the world wine map.

Gretchen shares how a young woman from San Jose found her way to Cal Poly, into the wine business, and eventually into a partnership with Austin Hope that helped grow Hope Family Wines from roughly 1,000 cases a year to nearly a million. They talk about the people who believed in her early on, the breakthrough success of Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon, the culture behind the Hope family business, and why treating people well still matters, no matter how big you get.

They also get into the tougher conversations facing wine today. Changing consumer habits, reaching new wine drinkers, and what California wineries need to do to stay relevant. As the new chair of the Wine Institute, Gretchen brings a perspective that reaches well beyond Paso, without losing the relationships and community that got her there. And yes, she shares what happened when the news broke about her Wine Enthusiast honor and her phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

In our Travel Paso Spotlight, we’re celebrating the return of the Garagiste Wine Festival, November 6–7, 2026. More than 50 small-production winemakers, over 200 wines, new Paso Robles venues, an Italian grape variety seminar, and a chance to meet the people actually making what’s in your glass. Plus, proceeds from festival activities help support the next generation of winemakers through the Garagiste Scholarship Fund at Cal Poly.

And Adam has a little personal news of his own: he’s getting married in Paso wine country this weekend, exactly nine years after his first date. Turns out, love doesn’t always consult the local events calendar.

🍷 Guest & Episode Links

Gretchen Roddick / Hope Family Wines

Website: https://hopefamilywines.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopefamily