Brochelle Vineyards: “The Secret Ingredient is Always Love”

Michelle Waterman, co-owner of Brochelle Vineyards in Paso Robles, has spent the past two decades building a family-run winery rooted in passion, perseverance, and an uncompromising pursuit of excellence. Alongside her husband and now with their two sons involved, she has weathered industry challenges while remaining dedicated to crafting wines that reflect meticulous care at every stage—from pruning and harvesting to bottling. Under Michelle’s leadership, Brochelle Vineyards has become known for producing elegant, detail-driven wines that embody both her family’s devotion and their belief that each vintage should elevate life’s simple pleasures. DeliveryRank features an exclusive interview.

Brochelle Vineyards was established in 1998 on a steep westside hillside in Paso Robles. How has this specific terroir and elevation influenced your viticultural approach and shaped the character of your wines?

Going back to our inception in 1998, we had great aspirations for our property. We did our homework and felt the steep slopes and unique microclimate here on the Westside of Paso had all the markings of great things to come with regards to our future winemaking signature.

We were humbly in awe of the exceptional wines this type of property could produce. The Adelaida District our vineyard resides in has such rich, limestone soils that not every AVA in Paso Robles benefits from. These elements coupled with the advantageous grape-growing weather patterns we have here allow us to dry farm our vines that in turn produce wines with such specific, incredible character that are unable to be replicated.

You emphasize old-world farming techniques, minimal intervention winemaking, and making tiny yields of highly flavored fruit. How do you strike the balance between purity and intensity to allow the vineyard’s story to shine through in every bottle?

The uniqueness of our vineyard’s location, coupled with Brock’s specific barrel regime has brought forth deeply bold and elegant wines. We are firmly committed to letting the land truly speak for itself through our wines. For this reason, we mainly focus on single varietal wines; to let the wines shine on its own – revealing its terroir within each glass.

From pruning to bottling, you mention that "no detail is left unnoticed." How does this meticulous attention to detail manifest in your daily work, and what impact does it have on final vintage quality?

Brock is our sole winemaker and farmer. Being in control of every facet of the winegrowing/winemaking process is what sets us apart. Living on the vineyard gives us intimate access to the ecosystem and nuances that make our vintages stand out. There is not a time that we are not thinking about, talking about, working on, or planning our future for our business. 

This has been our life for the past 27 years – it is our everything! We also have no desire to expand our production – we want to focus on small lot wines that are the truest expression of us and our property. Maintaining our business by remaining a small, passionate team are expressed in the quality and unique signature of our wines.

As one of the first boutique wineries in the region to sell exclusively online in 2010, and later open an urban tasting lounge, how have you seen customer engagement and wine distribution evolve over the years?

We are humbled to have customers and Wine Club Members that have been with us and have been purchasing our wines for the past 20+ years. We have some amazing ride-or-die brand ambassadors, and you truly couldn’t ask for more. Some of our most iconic customers were introduced to us by a friend gifting them a bottle, enjoying it at a dinner party, etc. These types of referrals are the ultimate best – and we have been abundantly blessed over the years from enthusiastic word of mouth. 

Conversely, our wines are distributed in about 8 states currently. We have seen a huge ebb and flow of distributors come in and out of business. In 2025, we recommitted ourselves to getting back out into the wholesale market to reinvigorate the markets we are in and reconnect with our retail partners. It is an aspect of this industry that is extremely important to maintain – you need both wholesale and retail markets to survive in this over-competitive environment.

Celebrating over two decades in business, how has the integration of family—now with two sons involved—shaped your long-term vision for Brochelle, and how do you continue to fuel the passion that first motivated you back in 1998?

Ironically, since becoming empty-nesters a few years ago, this husband-wife team has found newfound energy and inspiration! We personally never tire of our work in this industry as each year brings its own challenges and opportunities.

We recently spent extensive time traveling to out-of-state wholesale markets stoking and making new connections, we have a few new wine label projects in the works, we are looking at potential locations for a new tasting room – and honestly, we feel the possibilities are endless in this new chapter of our lives. Our sons have a few more years of college, and once they are finished, we will all discuss what role they might play in future business endeavors. For the time being, they are giving us fun and creative ideas for social media posts. We are very much looking forward to their insight into how to reach their generation and beyond with fresh, exciting ideas – all yet to be determined!

If you would like to find out more about Brochelle Vineyards, please visit https://brochelle.com/