Epoch Authenticity Red 2018
- Vinous
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Robert
Parker
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Fresh-cut herbs, red fruits, roses, forest floor, and roasted meats lead the way to this silky, sensation-filled wine. Flavors and aromas see-saw between savory and fruity, floral and earth, truffles and tobacco. Entering round and plush with velvety tannins, this wine expresses up and down motion as richness, acid, and tannin dance across the palate with secondary notes of graphite, cedar, and baking spices. It finishes with a lasting back-to-front brush of texture on the roof of the mouth.
Blend: 90% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Vivid purple. Powerful, smoke- and spice-accented aromas of dark berry preserves, candied flowers, mocha and olive carry a suave floral topnote. Fleshy, sweet and deeply concentrated, offering palate-coating black currant, boysenberry, vanilla and baking spice flavors that turn livelier with air. Conveys an appealing blend of depth and energy and finishes with superb clarity, repeating florality and smooth, polished tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Authenticity is a blend of Syrah with 10% Mourvèdre and was aged for 19 months in 77% new French oak. Opaque in color, it's aromatically complex, with layers of savory charcuterie, leather, fried sage and thyme over rich Morello cherry fruit. Youthfully boisterous and structurally supple, it offers layer after layer of savory fruit and finishes very long and spicy. It's approachable now but will continue to evolve in bottle over the next 10+ years.
Other Vintages
2017-
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
Founded in 2004 by geologists, Bill and Liz Armstrong, Epoch has quickly developed a big reputation for handcrafted, small-production wines with abundant personalities. Under the careful care of Winemaker, Jordan Fiorentini, Epoch is committed to producing world-class wines from Rhône, Zinfandel, and Tempranillo varieties grown on their three west Paso Robles vineyards – Paderewski, Catapult, and York Mountain. Epoch’s Tasting Room and Winery are located on the storied York Mountain which was once home to the first bonded winery on the central coast. Preserving the rich history found on this property as well as Paderewski Vineyard, a sight once owned and cherished by the late Polish Prime Minister and pianist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Epoch strives to carry on these legacies through their wines and the unique Epoch experience.
Through carefully managed, non-invasive farming, Epoch aims to bring the complex character of their vineyards into each bottle of wine they craft. All of Epoch's fruit comes from their three specific and unique sites: Paderewski, Catapult, and York Mountain Vineyards.
PADEREWSKI VINEYARD: Travel just west of Paso Robles, and you will find Paderewski Vineyard: 67 acres of undulating, steep, limestone rich hillsides within 570 rural, spring-fed acres.
CATAPULT VINEYARD: Directly in the heart of the Paso Robles’ Templeton Gap, near the acclaimed L’Aventure and Booker Vineyards, sits Catapult Vineyard.
YORK MOUNTAIN: Located just seven miles from the Pacific Ocean at an elevation of 1,500 feet, this property falls in the small 640 acre York Mountain AVA, which is outside of the very large Paso Robles AVA.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Paso Robles has made a name for itself as a source of supple, powerful, fruit-driven Central Coast wines. But with eleven smaller sub-AVAs, there is actually quite a bit of diversity to be found in this inland portion of California’s Central Coast.
Just east over the Santa Lucia Mountains from the chilly Pacific Ocean, lie the coolest in the region: Adelaida, Templeton Gap and (Paso Robles) Willow Creek Districts, as well as York Mountain AVA and Santa Margarita Ranch. These all experience more ocean fog, wind and precipitation compared to the rest of the Paso sub-appellations. The San Miguel, (Paso Robles) Estrella, (Paso Robles) Geneso, (Paso Robles) Highlands, El Pomar and Creston Districts, along with San Juan Creek, are the hotter, more western appellations of the greater Paso Robles AVA.
This is mostly red wine country, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel standing out as the star performers. Other popular varieties include Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Grenache and Rhône blends, both red and white. There is a fairly uniform tendency here towards wines that are unapologetically bold and opulently fruit-driven, albeit with a surprising amount of acidity thanks to the region’s chilly nighttime temperatures.