Emidio Pepe, 'Casa Pepe,' Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Italy, 2021

Overview of the Wine
This estate is too good to be true. The wines are amongst the best in Italy, the reds famous and the whites, in my view, just as good, and equally beautiful with age; the family that produces them is charming, three generations from Emidio himself (elegant in flat cap and red sweater vest) to his lovely, enthusiastic grand-daughter Chiara, who handles export markets, not to forget Emidio’s daughters Daniela and Sofia, who now run the winery; and the wines have been grown naturally and vinified using traditional techniques since the first vintage in 1964, perhaps the oldest and most genuine ‘natural wines’ in Italy, and not a hipster in sight. It’s just too perfect, the epitome of all good things in Old World viticulture; and it’s all real. Did I mention that the wines are breathtaking? And the Pepe family have a huge aging cellar where they keep large stocks of old wines, which are decanted to order by Emidio’s wife Rosa, so you can order old bottles of Pepe knowing that they’re genuine and that they’ve been stored perfectly. Ridiculous. 

The winemaking is a complete throwback, nothing changed in a hundred years. The vineyards are planted using plants from massal selection of their own oldest vineyards, not clones, and are farmed biodynamically.

Winemaker
Chiara De Iulis Pepe

Grape / Blend
Montepulciano

Origin
d'Abruzzo, Italy

Tasting Notes
Casa Pepe is a parcel located directly in front of the estate. This tiny 0.8 hectare vineyard is south facing, planted pergole style in the early 1970’s with massale selection by Emidio. Soils are the classic blue clay-marl with gravel and less sand than Branella. Wines here are earthier, with the slower ripening of the grapes adding to the complexity of the fine tannins in the wine. Iron, burst berries, dried herbs and some of the finest tannins mark this as a truly exceptional wine. 

95 Points - Vinous
The 2021 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Vecchie Vigne Casa Pepe is dark and intense. Wet stone and sage hints offset violets and crushed blackberries. It's soothingly round and supple with a wave of ripe blackberries and sour citrus that gives way to an herbal note toward the close. The 2021 finishes with a tinge of saline minerality and fine-grained tannins, tapering off long. A pleasant note of primary concentration makes perfect punctuation.

Product size: 750ml