Emidio Pepe Agriturismo Visit and Aurora Vertical Tasting
Emidio Pepe Winery
Tasted Saturday, October 29, 2022 - Sunday, October 30, 2022 by retired_and_roving with 145 views
Introduction
After leaving Rome, we drove to Abruzzo winding our way over and through the Apennine Mountains - with the spectacular Gran Sasso peak looming overhead. Arriving at Emidio Pepe Agriturismo for two nights before they closed for the season. Tremendous hospitality and good vibes here, spectacular views, good food and a chance to taste a nice vertical of their wines dating back to 1982. Highly recommended!
Flight 1 - Drinks on the Patio overlooking the Casa Pepe Vineyard (2 Notes)
After the long drive and a walk around the property to stretch our legs, we decided to have a glass of wine on the patio. Enjoying the late afternoon sun over the autumn landscape.
As we were wondering the property, Emidio himself came over to say hello and agreed to take a photo with us.
Flight 2 - Dinner with Aurora Vertical Tasting (7 Notes)
They offer a pre-fix 7 course dinner at the Agriturismo on certain nights and you can choose to pair your dinner with a tasting of 3 glasses, 5 glasses or the 7 glass Aurora vertical which includes two older vintages. We opted for the Aurora vertical as we wanted to taste as broad a selection as possible. The pours were very generous - so by the time you reach the end of dinner, a lot of wine is consumed.
Prior to dinner they give all the diners an opportunity for a tour of the cantina and winery. We were the only English speakers dining that night so got a private tour from Mikol. In the cantina they keep all the past vintages in bottle unlabeled. When these are ready to be released they will decant with a cork showing the year of decanating and add a label. Approximately 50 -80% of the bottles are held back in the year of release. A larger % is held back in particularly good years as these will benefit most from the aging process. The red bottles are all stored in one area, with the whites in a separate cantina.
We then moved over to the winery to see the concrete tanks and talk about the vilification process. The white wines are foot pressed in a wooden cart with slats - where the juice is put directly to tank. The red wines are destemmed by hand and then placed directly in tank without crushing. The concrete tanks are all lined with glass - so they like to say the wines only are ever in contact with glass - from tank to bottle. Montepulciano and Trebbiano spend two years in tank before bottling. Pecorino spends one year and the Cerasulo is held in tank until June. All native yeasts, with a starter tank set in the open containing a small open tank that begins fermentation in the sun and helps the concrete tanks to start fermentation.
One interesting change is that they will plan to start including the vineyard from which the wine was sourced on the label. They do not blend the vineyards currently - but they do not disclose. So some bottles are from the Casa Pepe vineyard and there's from Branella, but they are currently all labeled the same. Will be interesting to see how this will affect the pricing in the US Market.
The dinner was a seven course meal - with all diners sitting at the same time. Great food and warm service, with Elisa Pepe stopping by the table to talk about each wine as it was poured.
2019 Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
Italy, Abruzzi, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
(10/29/2022)
At the winery, by the glass overlooking the vines after the drive over/under the mountains from Rome. Very enjoyable glass, more fruit than I was expecting and a long finish. Quite golden in color, some oxidative notes, freshness and golden fruit. Sure this has a long way to go, but very pleasant now.
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2020 Emidio Pepe Pecorino Colli Aprutini IGT
Italy, Abruzzi, Colli Aprutini IGT
(10/29/2022)
At the winery, from a small taste from my husband's glass. This was less funky on the nose than the bottle we had in Rome. Lots of ripe golden fruit, super enjoyable and easy to drink. Next to the 2019 Trebbiano this is the easier quaffer. Both are delicious!
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