The Viognier Made Me Do It

An evening of wines, spices, pasta on the ceiling, and flavors that wouldn’t behave.

By Neeta Mittal

I didn’t plan to fall in love. Certainly not with a Viognier. But Viognier hit like a velvet sledgehammer halfway through a spice pairing at Epoch Wines—mid-focaccia dunk, butter chicken on the tongue. “This tastes like Condrieu,” I said, already swirling it again. And just like that, the rest of the evening became a spirited tug-of-war between food, spice, and one particularly persuasive white wine.

Setting the Scene: A Humble Kitchen with Grand Intentions

Kunal and I arrived at Epoch around 4 PM, arms full of spices and wine, hearts open to what was supposed to be a structured collaboration. But Paso Robles had other plans. The first clue? We were greeted by Sherman—one of the first people we ever met in Paso, now off doing something completely different (he’s opened a restaurant in San Luis Obispo), but still orbiting the mothership. There he was, helping us unload. Epoch’s gravitational pull is apparently very real.

The setting: a kitchen that used to be a doublewide trailer. Epoch’s original tasting room, now converted into a warm, functional heart of creativity. There’s something poetic about launching a collaboration in a space that started it all.

The Cheeses, the Wines, and the Whispering Spices

Jordan Fiorentini and her incredible team (including two members of their social media crew) hosted us like we were family. We started with their signature cheese board—Honeybee goat cheese, Idiazabal, Leche’s, Stepladder Creamery Brie, mortadella, Gorgonzola, Barolo salami from Alle-Pia, and speck.

We paired three wines:

Our Sauvignon Blanc–Sémillon (bright acidity, tropical swagger)
Epoch’s Grenache Blanc–Viognier blend (elegant, subtle, lifted)
Epoch’s 100% York Mountain Viognier (the seducer, clearly)

The Sauvignon Blanc–Sémillon was a revelation with goat cheese–stuffed peppers. It even stood up to the boldness of the Gorgonzola. The Grenache Blanc blend played a graceful duet with the Brie.

Our Meso Cabernet Franc found a bold but balanced match in the Barolo salami and the Gorgonzola—a pairing that felt less like a fight and more like a fiery romance.

But that Viognier. That Viognier… it didn’t play nicely—it took over the party, elegantly. It was Condrieu in cowboy boots.

Our LXV spices danced alongside, adding texture and layers to the wines. The Cocoa-Miso pairing with the Viognier was especially dreamy. I abandoned all formal structure, dunked a piece of Jordan’s focaccia into our butter chicken sauce, and chased it with more Viognier.

No regrets.

Pasta on the Ceiling and Magic in the Air

Our husbands had joined from the start, occasionally wandering into the camera frame like happy cameos. Jordan’s husband, Manu, Italian and effortlessly charming, fully embraced the chaos—especially when it came time to test if the pasta was cooked by flinging a strand at the ceiling. It stuck. Of course it did.

We were joined later by Alicia Teague and her husband Kevin—coincidentally, Kunal had worked with Kevin at Mindbody. Alicia is one of Jordan’s closest friends, and she brought a surprising twist to the evening. She kept circling back to our Sauvignon Blanc–Sémillon. “It reminds me of a white you made years ago,” she told Jordan. Turns out, both wines were from the Vogelzang Vineyard. The fact that Alicia, an untrained taster, picked up on that specific sense of place left all of us in awe. Terroir doesn’t always shout. Sometimes, it whispers to the right people.

Dinner followed with a trio of delights: Jordan’s silky tomato pasta, Kunal’s unapologetically rich butter chicken, and yes—samosas (because why not?). We also poured Jordan’s Veracity blend, and the evening transformed into a flavor-soaked gathering of stories, spice, and impromptu plans.

At some point, someone said “Magic Castle.” Phones came out. Tickets were booked. Kunal, never one to waste a good theme, performed magic tricks for everyone—Jordan’s daughter Morgan and her friend were wide-eyed. So were we.