Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Casa Pepe Emidio Pepe 2022

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Casa Pepe Emidio Pepe 2022, biodynamic wine, rich, layered, complex, extraordinary potential for ageing.  Emidio Pepe describes Montepulciano as the fine wine of the future as the for its combination of immediate beauty and subsequent aging potential. The vines of Casa Pepe were grafted between 1970 and 1974 in soils with a strong silt base. This allows for greater water retention and a longer ripening season.  As a result, Casa Pepe is the last parcel to be harvested. The longer growing season gives plenty of time for the phenolics to fully develop as well as the tannins. It is this that provides Casa Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo with what Pepe himself calls the ‘il velluto’, the magical velvet sensation you feel in your mouth when you take a sip.

The fruit is harvested by hand and grapes are destemmed before being macerated for 7-8 days. Fermentation takes place in cement tanks with a gentle extraction- no pumping over! The wines are left to age for 2 years in cement before being bottled and left to rest before release.

Simply, very fine wine.

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.