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48 WINES&VINES October 2015 WINEMAKING I n the early 20th century, the world-renowned Polish musician and concert pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski purchased a ranch near Paso Robles, Calif., after visiting the city's famous hot springs to treat his rheumatism. Paderewski would later grow Zinfandel and other wine grapes on the ranch and send the fruit off to an old winery on nearby York Mountain to be made into wine. His wines would go on to garner awards at state competitions and earn some acclaim be- fore the onset of Prohibition in 1920. Pa- derewski was far less successful prospecting for oil on the thousands of acres he owned and last visited the area in 1939. A century after he bought the parcel in Cali- fornia's Central Coast, grapes are once more being trucked from the Paderewski Vineyard and turned into wine at the top of York Moun- tain, but the winery and vineyard are now owned by geologists who came to the area for its calcareous soils rather than mineral hot springs. York Mountain is now the home of Epoch Estate Wines, which is owned by Bill and Liz Armstrong, who founded Armstrong Oil & Gas in Denver, Colo. In 2004, the Armstrongs pur- chased 350 acres of land that had been part of Epoch Estate Wines New winery dedicated to producing Rhône wines on Paso Robles' York Mountain By Andrew Adams TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT KEY POINTS The historic York Mountain AVA in Paso Robles, Calif., is now home to a new winery focused on producing Rhône blends, Zinfandel and other wines from estate grapes. Key equipment includes several concrete fermentors and a unique harness system to ensure employee safety during manual punchdowns. All wine movement is facilitated with gravity at the modern yet simple winery. Above: Winemaker Jordan Fiorentini does a punchdown on one of the winery's open-top concrete tanks. Fiorentini is wearing a safety harness linked to a mounting that slides along on a rail above her, so she can safely move from tank to tank while doing punchdowns. BRITTANY APP