Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Emidio Pepe 2003

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Emidio Pepe 2003, natural wine from Abruzzo, a blockbuster vintage, full and rich, expressive, stunning. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo really can be one of the world’s greatest wines. Emidio Pepe reds are something akin to fine Burgundy with weight. They are complex, earthy, yet elegant and fresh. Really outstanding, drink with only with the most finely prepared meat dishes you can produce from your kitchen. The 2003 is incredible wine from a difficult vintage that stressed the fruit, but which has in the end yielded wines which are ageing beautifully.

The great wines of Emidio Pepe have become iconic on the international market; older vintages sell for high prices and are highly sort after.

You might say 'rightly so' when you consider the labour of love that has gone into every bottle. The organic grapes are handpicked, sorted and every one pressed by foot, a practice that is very rare nowadays but still produces the softest pressing. The must is then fermented with natural yeast in large cement tanks and aged in cement for 2 years, settling naturally without the addition of sulphur. Emidio Pepe wines are then bottled and sent for ageing in the cellar. They store an incredible 40 vintages in their stunning cellar just outside Torano Nuovo in northern Abruzzo not far from the Marche border. When a bottle is sold, it is lovingly decanted into a fresh bottle by hand (hence there is no need for fining nor filtration), Emidio Pepe wines are all corked by hand and then labelled by hand! Only very rarely is any sulphur used in the production of Pepe wines and yet such is the perfection of natural balance that they age for decades.