2011 Authenticity

Jordan Fiorentini is one of the most thoughtful winemakers in Paso Robles, so it is not surprising to see quality continue to improve in a meaningful way at Epoch. Today, Fiorentini is likely to use a significant portion of whole clusters and more neutral vessels like cement, both of which allow the purity of the fruit to come through with greater transparency. All of that has happened while Epoch continues to expand under the leadership and vision of owners Bill and Liz Armstrong. Epoch's new winery on York Mountain is now nearly finished. Epoch's newest estate vineyard, Catapult, which lies next to L'Aventure and Booker, is now contributing fruit to some of these wines. The Armstrongs have spared virtually no expense in getting Epoch off the ground. What they have achieved in just a few years is truly remarkable, but my sense is that it is just the beginning. In addition to these wines, I also tasted the 2012 Zinfandel, which had just been bottled and was understandably very tight.

This will be the last year the Epoch wines will be made at the Denner winery, as Epoch's owner, Liz and Bill Armstrong, will have completed their own facility in the Paderewski vineyard in time to receive the 2014 harvest.Winemaker Jordan Fiorentini takes a bittersweet view of that fact.She told me that while "it will be a huge, huge thrill" for Epoch to have a winery all to themselves, she'll miss the energy of being surrounded at the Denner space and in the Willow Creek area in general by pretty much the who's who of the west side Paso wine scene."It's right up the road, sure, but distances can seem to grow" over time, she said."This has been ground zero for so much that's happened here, and we've been incredibly lucky to be in the middle of it."The climatic realities of the 2011 vintage meant lower-octane wines than normal for Epoch, but that's all relative.These were among the richest, most densely packed wines that I tasted on my trip but they don't lack for a degree of elegance.And that's not simply a function of the vintage, Fiorentini told me."I've been backing steadily off of extraction and oak," she said, "because it's clear that the vineyard is always going to give us all the power we need.So now the job is to let the fruit come through as clearly as possible."

This is another solid set of wines from Epoch, where things are still a bit in motion. Epoch's 2010s are the first vintage made by current winemaker Jordan Fiorentini from start to finish. The 2011s, from a cooler, slower maturing year, may turn out to be even better. Fiorentini describes 2011 as a short harvest, mostly because of the spring frost. The fruit was brought on from early October to early November, very much on the late side, as was the case throughout the Central Coast.