Emidio Pepe

Emidio Pepe began making wine in Torano Nuovo in 1964, in one of the poorer and less-celebrated wine regions of Italy, using farming methods passed down from his parents and grandparents that turned out, decades later, to align exactly with what the organic certification movement codified. He did not adopt organic farming as a response to a movement. He simply never farmed any other way.

The estate's Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo are made with a level of patience that is unusual anywhere in the world: the wines are aged in large old barrels for years before release, and Pepe's practice of rebottling vintages that don't show well is a standard the commercial wine industry cannot support but that serious collectors have come to depend on as a guarantee.

The Montepulciano d'Abruzzo has drawn 98 points from Wine Advocate — a mark that placed Pepe on the international radar of collectors who had paid no previous attention to Abruzzo. The wines age with a composure that few Italian reds from outside Piedmont and Tuscany can match, and the cellaring depth the Pepe family has maintained means that older vintages remain available for those willing to seek them.

Emidio Pepe's granddaughter Chiara is now involved in the estate. The farming philosophy has not shifted.