Pepe Emidio

Image taken from the Gambero Rosso website 

Founded in Abruzzo - north of Teramo - at the end of the 19th century, the Pepe company is today an international point of reference whose wines have reached a status comparable to those of few other historical Italian producers. 

Emidio Pepe is today a true legend of Italian wine - a man who since 1964 has been producing some of the best wines in the world with completely natural and manual methods, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. 
Today it is the daughters Daniela and Sofia who take care of the cellar, with the help of the nieces Chiara and Elisa, always following the precious dictates and suggestions of Emidio. 

The Pepe family now cultivates 15 hectares of vineyards, which are located 15 km from the sea and 25 km from the mountains on clayey and calcareous soils with a ventilated microclimate and good temperature ranges, the ideal place for the production of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. 

The vineyards are planted using plants from the mass selection of their oldest vineyards, not clones, and are grown in a biodynamic way well before this became a 'fashion'.
All the wines are fermented with native yeasts and vinified in concrete tanks, in order to avoid any interference from the wood. The wines are then aged in those same cement tanks, to then be bottled without filtration and without added sulphites. 

In most vintages there are two Montepulciano wines made in the cellar.
Montepulciano made from younger vines is the estate's flagship wine, and is only released in Italy after a few years of aging.
The wines obtained from the older vineyards are instead reserved for the foreign market, as well as a small production of Montepulciano obtained from 2 single vineyards.

Pepe wines are distinguished by their unique style, artisanal approach and remarkable purity. They faithfully represent the character of each vintage, so the wines are usually very different from year to year.