Emidio Pepe, 'Casa Pepe' Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Italy, 2020

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.

Grape / Blend
Montepulciano

Origin
d'Abruzzo, Italy

Tasting Notes
2020 is the first release of both single vineyards at Emidio Pepe: Casa Pepe & Branella. These two wines replace the one Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from old vines. That is to say, there will only be these two cru wines and not, also a third non-vineyard designated wine. Branella has different zones within it with distinct geological variations. Some classic "speckled" blue clay marls on the northern / top of the vineyard. Distinct sandy zone in the center with a lower pH. 

Product size: 750ml