Emidio Pepe

The Pepe family has been farming vines in Abruzzo since 1889, selling its grapes to the local co-op under Emidio Pepe and then his son Giuseppe. It was, however, Giuseppe’s son Emidio (the first Emidio’s grandson) who started bottling wines under the family name in 1964. At the time the region was known for early-drinking, simple styles, however Emidio Pepe believed that Abruzzo and its indigenous grapes had greater potential. 

Reducing yields and working traditionally in the vineyard and winery, he crafted age-worthy styles that are today some of the region’s most prized. Emidio Pepe has, in time, become a star of the natural wine movement, farming biodynamically (certified since 2005), using indigenous yeast and avoiding sulphur or other additives in the winery. 

Located in the very north of Abruzzo in the province of Teramo, with clay soils over limestone, the estate consists of 17 hectares of vines today, with additional land dedicated to olive groves. Many of the vines are pergola-trained, as is traditional in the region, allowing the fruit to mature under the shade of its own canopy. The vineyards are divided between Montepulciano, Trebbiano and Pecorino. 

Today, the fourth generation, Emidio’s daughters Sofia and Daniela, are at the helm of the property, although Emidio still works in the vineyard. Sofia leads in the vineyard and winery while Daniela runs the business side of the operation, and Chiara (Sofia’s daughter) is also involved. 

The philosophy here has barely changed since 1964. The fruit is all hand-picked. The red grapes are all de-stemmed by hand (a painstaking process intended to avoid extracting astringent tannins from the stems) and start the fermentation with much of the fruit in-tact as whole berries. After it’s basket-pressed, the Montepulciano spends two years in glass-lined cement tank. It’s bottled unfined and unfiltered. 

The whites are all trodden by foot for around 40-45 minutes, in loads of 350kg, to extract flavour and texture from the skins and avoid extracting tannins from the stems. The juice is then fermented with native yeast over 30-35 days and aged in glass-lined concrete tank for 15 months, then bottled unfined and unfiltered. The property’s rarest wine is its Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, a rosé (or rosato) style that is considered something of a “unicorn” (and made in the same way as its whites). No oak is used across the range. 

The property has long produced different wines for the domestic and export market. It produces wines from younger vines that are released earlier and sold exclusively in Italy (three years after the vintage for the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, and two years for the Trebbiano d’Abruzzo and Pecorino Colli Aprutini). These are priced lower than the older-vine bottlings, which are released later: five years after the vintage for the Montepulciano and four years for the Trebbiano and Pecorino in Europe; eight years for the Montepulciano and four to five years for the Trebbiano and Pecorino in the USA/Asia. The release dates are different for different markets because the property believes that the wines need longer in bottle to handle the extended journey to Asia or the US. Somewhat confusingly, these wines bore exactly the same label. 

As of the 2019 vintage (for the Trebbiano d’Abruzzo) and the 2020 vintage (for the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo), however, the property started labelling these old-vine bottlings with a stamp stating “Selezione Vecchie Vigne” to differentiate them. 

The property only releases half of production (which totals around 80,000 bottles a year) to the market, retaining the other half in its extensive cellars for late release. Montepulciano bottlings older than 20 years old are decanted by hand into a new bottle, taking them off their sediment, easing reduction (to which the grape is naturally inclined) and topping up the levels. The wine is then re-corked, with a strip around the neck of the label and a stamped cork stating the year it was decanted. The Trebbiano, Pecorino and Cerasuolo are never decanted. Today the winery in Torano Nuovo is home to around 350,000 bottles of back-vintages. 

Along with Valentini, Emidio Pepe is a standard-bearer for Abruzzo, making legendary wines that are rightfully sought-after by collectors.