2015 White

Winemaker Jordan Fiorentini and her associate winemaker, Peter Turrone, told me that one of the big surprises here is how well the white wines have aged. “Most people don’t associate Paso Robles with white wine in the first place,” Fiorentini said, “much less with white wines that can age.” History has proven the age-worthiness of wines from the northern Rhône, of course, but those from the southern Rhône, where the climate often resembles that of the Paso Robles region, have a checkered history for rewarding patience. Fiorentini said that the cold nights are a huge factor in preserving acidity in the wines “and give them backbone, which applies to both whites and reds.” She also told me that Epoch is getting serious with their pink wine (it’s one of the best being made in the New World, by the way) because “if you look at how well a great Bandol rosé can age and improve, why couldn’t that happen here, with similar climate, grapes and limestone soils?” To make the point she poured the 2015 Epoch Rosé next to the benchmark pink Bandol, Domaine Tempier, also from 2015. The comparison proved to be more than worthy.