Epoch has Big Paso Plans
Wed, April 18, 2012 at 10:00 AM By Ben Heskett
PASO ROBLES, Calif. – It’s not a difficult task to get CORKZILLA to spend some time here or visit some of our favorite wineries. One such place is Epoch Estate Wines on York Mountain Road, seemingly off the beaten path (though you could say that about many wineries here), but continuing to raise its profile in the area and beyond.
When we last checked in with Jordan Fiorentini, winemaker at Epoch, the wines were on an interesting growth path, both in terms of quality and complexity. The winery routinely sells out of its mailing list allotment of wines, underscoring the success of early vintages, and it's clearly one of the hotter wineries in the Paso Robles region. Now the winery may soon have the infrastructure to grow.
A few updates from a discussion last week with Fiorentini at the winery’s tasting room:
- Early samples of the Fall 2012 releases – the 2010 vintages of Sensibility, Veracity, and Zinfandel – indicate continued experimentation and evolution of the brands. The Veracity GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) blend is more Grenache driven in 2010, the Zinfandel includes a bit of Tempranillo, and the 2010 Sensibility remains a lighter Pinot Noir-like combination.
- The winery is now producing roughly 4,000 cases annually, up from the 1,800 case mark in 2008.
- Epoch has started the permitting process to build a new facility with a 10,000 case capacity across the road from the current tasting room. They hope to complete the new facility by 2014-15. This does not necessarily mean the winery will make that much wine, according to Fiorentini, but as is often the case in the industry Epoch wanted to build that capacity into the expansion plan.
Epoch will be at the upcoming 20th Annual Hospice du Rhone event here at the end of this month.
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