2020 Epoch Zinfandel

All Zinfandel from the estate Paderewski Vineyard, the 2020 Zinfandel was raised in French oak mid-sized barrels and puncheons. It has a ripe, powerful nose of blue fruits, mulled plums, cigar tobacco, and cedarwood that carries to a medium to full-bodied, ripe, concentrated Zinfandel with sweet tannins and outstanding length. Epoch continues to pull heavily from their estate Paderewski Vineyard, but they’re also releasing new cuvées from their York Mountain estate as those vines come online. I expect this trend to continue. Looking at the wines reviewed here, I was able to taste all their 2020s now from bottle, and they’ve clearly produced some of the top wines in this challenging vintage. If there’s any smoke in these wines, I was unable to find it, and they have remarkable purity in their aromatics and ripe, polished tannins. I was also able to go through the 2021s with winemaker Jordan Fiorentini, and there are some legit genius wines in here that are as good as anything out there. I’d wager these 2021s are some of the finest wines produced from this estate, and I can’t wait to try them again from bottle next year.