Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2022

Emidio Pepe is a singular producer creating amazingly complex age-worthy reds and whites in a region of mass-produced, overly engineered versions of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. 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. The business and wine production has been in the hands of the fourth generation of the Pepe family with sisters, Daniela and Sofia, since 1997. And more recently, Daniela's daughter, the dynamic Chiara de Iulis Pepe has joined the estate as the fifth generation! Chiara's sister, Elisa, is also now in charge of the agriturismo at the winery.

The winemaking regime at Pepe follows an uber-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. An extensive stock of older vintages is kept at the winery. The year of decantation is now listed on a strip around the neck of the bottle. Trebbiano and Pecorino are not and have never been decanted.