Executive Vice President at Hope Family Wines
Gretchen Roddick joined Hope Family Wines in 1997 and never looked back. As Executive Vice President, Gretchen today oversees all company operations including production, winemaking, finance, hospitality, sales and marketing. Gretchen has worked side by side with owner-winemaker Austin Hope for the past 25 years. In that time, annual sales have grown from 1,000 cases to nearly one million—a Paso Robles success story that culminated in Hope Family Wines being named Wine Enthusiast’s 2022 American Winery of the Year. Gretchen was also recognized by her peers in 2022 as San Luis Obispo County’s Wine Industry Person of the Year. In the spring of 2023, she was named a Board Officer at Wine Institute after serving on the board of directors since 2008.
Gretchen moved from San Jose to the Central Coast in 1990 to attend California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, where she majored in Fruit Science with an Agriculture Business Minor. After graduating in 1996, she studied abroad to fine tune her Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico before returning to the Central Coast, where she joined the harvest team at Maison Deutz as a seasonal cellar assistant. In 1997, Gretchen found a ground-floor opportunity with a small, unknown family winery that would become known as Hope Family Wines. With Austin Hope at the helm, Hope Family Wines aspired to make world-class wines and become an enduring champion of Paso Robles. Gretchen proved to be a pivotal force in driving this vision forward, wearing multiple hats that touched on production, events, sales and hospitality. Her responsibilities expanded in tandem with the winery’s growth, and she was promoted to General Manager in 2005—a position that she held before being named Executive Vice President in 2023.
Throughout her career, Gretchen has been a passionate advocate for the Paso Robles region and the California wine industry, prompting her to join the board of the Wine Institute as the Central Coast Director in 2008. Today, as a Board Officer at Wine Institute, she remains dedicated to advancing the interests of the California wine industry around the globe. Since 2018, she has also served on the board of the Paso Robles Cab Collective as Treasurer and Marketing Co-Chair. Gretchen has a deep sense of community and shares her expertise through mentorships and speaking engagements. She has served as a member of the Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce Advocacy Committee and the Cal Poly Horticulture and Crop Science Advisory Board 1998-2019.
Gretchen lives in Paso Robles with her husband Will Gretchen, a veteran Paso Robles vineyard manager. Their son and daughter, both college-aged, have also shown interest in the wine industry. In her bright, friendly and energetic style, Gretchen ultimately reflects the best of the Paso Robles wine community. “I am grateful to the Hope family, and to all of the people who have helped us succeed along the way,” she says. “My goal is to pay it forward through mentorship and investment in this industry that has meant so much to me and my family.”