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August 20, 2014
Emidio Pepe - slow and steady
The original Emidio Pepe founded his winery in 1899, nestled in the town of Torano Nuovo in Abruzzo’s Teramo province. It passed from his son to his grandson, also an Emidio, who currently runs the winery with his two daughters, Daniela and Sofia. With such long roots, it’s no wonder that the winery is so steeped in tradition. This is about as “slow and steady” as wine production can get. The family harvests, sorts, crushes, and destems by hand. White grapes are pressed by feet. They only use indigenous yeasts and add absolutely zilch to the process. Emidio’s wife, Rosa, hand decants each bottle to eliminate natural sediments and then rebottles it before going to market. And each label is—you guessed it—placed by hand.
Emidio Pepe has been using organic methods since the 60s, and today is both biodynamic and organic certified. For wines that have been made without the use of sulfur, you may expect the shelf life to be short. But Emidio’s wines hold up, and they do so for decades. The Pepes have an air-conditioned cellar where they store nearly 350,000 bottles with vintages dating back to 1964, and these wines are known to maintain structure and develop in bottle exceptionally well.
Sandwiched between the Adriatic Sea and the Appennine Mountains, the Trebbiano and Montepulciano grown on his 15 acres of vineyards develop complexity and minerality. With long warm days and cool nights, these are much more than the easy-drinking wines we expect to find from Abruzzo. These are wines to brood over, and to drink for years and years to come.
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