Emidio Pepe is a singular producer creating amazingly complex age-worthy reds and whites.Though the family has been producing wines here since the end of the 19th Century, the winemaking process has remained philosophically unchanged since Emidio Pepe took over the estate in 1964. Before anyone else, he strongly believed in the great ageing potential of Trebbiano and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and he dedicated all his energies to those two indigenous grape varietals, proving their incredible potential and showing it to the entire world. The business and wine production has been in the hands of the fourth generation of the Pepe family since 1997, with the fifth generation recently stepping in.

The Pepe vineyards, composed of 17 hectares of indigenous varietals, are located in the northern province of Teramo, with soils rich in clay and limestone. The top 40 centimeters of the soil is clay but underneath it is solid limestone. The climate balances the soft and sapid influence of the sea together with the cold streams from the Gran Sasso Mountain, giving birth to a perfect condition that allows a slow and progressive ripening of the flavours and creating an ideal balance between sugars and acidity.

The winemaking regime at Pepe follows a natural and artisanal path. Grapes are grown biodynamically, hand-harvested, hand-destemmed, fermented with spontaneous yeast, and aged 18-24 months in glass-lined cement tanks. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered and are aged in their cellar in bottles for continued development. Before release, the Montepulciano bottles that are 20 or more years old are decanted by hand into new bottles and labeled.