Epoch, which was founded in 2004 by Bill and Liz Armstrong has quickly risen as one of California’s most exciting wineries and although still a relatively young label, the wines are wines are highly sought after. The philosophy at Epoch is to make wines that are delicious and complex, seriously fun to drink, interestingly iconoclastic, seductively hedonistic, thought provoking and hopefully, most importantly, memory making.

Through carefully managed, non-invasive farming, Epoch aims to bring the complex character of their vineyards and their terroir into each bottle of Epoch Estate Wine. All of their fruit comes from two specific and unique sites: Paderewski Vineyard and Catapult Vineyard.

Winemaker Jordan Fiorentini is crafting wines of extreme quality from Rhone-based varietals in these West Paso Robles Vineyards. All the wines we have tasted from Epoch have been stunning to say the least and these are wines that deserve everyone's full attention.

The sixty-five acre Paderewski Vineyard is a patchwork of undulating, steep, limestone hillsides set within 350 rural, spring-fed acres five miles west of Paso Robles. The soils are very un-California like. Lean, rocky, calcareous and extreme. The vineyard blocks were meticulously laid out based on their unique exposures, soil attributes, and mesoclimates - each producing fruit specific to their exact location. Epoch has several clones of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, Counoise, Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Marsanne, and Viognier planted to carefully match their respective hillsides with most being grafted onto Phylloxera resistant Native American rootstock plus a few blocks of Syrah and Grenache vines planted on their own root stock.

The Catapult Vineyard, though barely three miles from Paderewski vineyard, has rocky silicious soils with little limestone content - the pH of the Catapult vineyard is in the high 5’s - which is a nice complement to Paderewski’s high lime/high pH soils. In addition, the mesoclimate at Catapult is cooler than the "Rewski" which allows for a different flavor profile of the fruit produced. Epoch planted seven grape varietals at Catapult: Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Tempranillo, Grenache Blanc, and Roussanne.

For more information on Epoch Estate Wines or to Join the Mailing list, please visit their website: www.epochwines.com