Emidio Pepe

The Free Bacchus Story

Emidio Pepe started making wine in Abruzzo in 1964 using the methods his parents and grandparents had used. Decades later the organic certification movement wrote down a set of standards, and his farming turned out to already meet them.

He did not convert to anything. He simply never farmed any other way, in a region that was poor, unfashionable, and of no interest to the international market, which is a large part of why the old methods survived there at all. The estate is now ICEA certified organic.

The patience is the other unusual thing. The Montepulciano and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo age in large old barrels for years before release, and the family rebottles vintages that are not showing well — a practice the commercial wine industry cannot support and that serious collectors have come to rely on. Deep cellar stocks mean older vintages remain findable for anyone prepared to look, which is rarer than it sounds.

Emidio Pepe died on 28 July 2026, a day after his ninety-fourth birthday. The estate had already passed to his daughters Sofia and Daniela, supported by his granddaughters Chiara and Elisa, and had been run by them for years. Continuity here was settled well before it was tested, which is the part of a producer's record that no certificate captures.