What a delight this wine was. With hints of apple and cinnamon, this Trebbiano exhibited a nutty, oily quality that I found to be very desirable. It gave the wine both a textural quality and richness that made one want to keep revisiting. A slight hint of mustiness added complexity. A great food wine but certainly capable of standing on its own.
Sounds good. Pepe has become difficult to find, compared to say, 7-10 years ago.
Seattle just received a little of this, was curious how it was but just can’t pull the trigger at $100…
Man, they’ve gotten pricey! These used to sell in the 40’s…
Michael – I found the 2008 vintage of this in the Vinmonopolet in Oslo this summer for about $45. Had to give it a whirl and, much like you, I enjoyed it very much. At stateside prices however, the wine is definitely a pass for me. My brief note is below.
2008 Emidio Pepe Trebbiano D’Abruzzo Light gold. Brown butter, some toasted nuts, some leesiness and a slight honeyed sweetness on nose. Fresh and clean on palate with lots of acid and a minerally finish. Glad I got to try this.
The winery offered a vertical tasting of the Trebbiano at Vinitaly, I thought the wines were wonderful.
wow - just drank a bottle of this at a restaurant in Piedmont. 40 euros off the list.
I normally get it for about 25EUR Italian retail price, which I think is reasonable. If and when it goes up (which it inevitably will, I think), I might follow, depending on how much exactly. At 100USD, though, I’d probably think somebody was pulling my leg.
Wow, the US pricing really is nuts. I was just browsing through the website of a Spanish online store and came across this exact wine at 32 €.
It is worth keeping in mind that the Europe release is actually a different wine. In Europe they sell the young vines bottling, which they release at a younger age from the winery and at a lower price. In the United States the bottling is older vines, and basically the Riserva. This is true of the red as well.
Is this a recent development?
No, it is not a recent development. This has been what is done.
It is perhaps worth painting the picture a bit for people who don’t know, so I’ll add:
-there are several different vineyards for Trebbiano that they farm, and they aren’t necessarily adjacent. Some are some distance away from the others. There are different exposures, different elevations, and different proximities to the sea involved.
-it isn’t all Trebbiano, there is one row of Malvasia vines
-they ferment in cement tanks of various size and age, and those lots are never assembled (only the Cerasuolo is assembled)
-the grapes from the different vineyard parcels always go into the same designated tanks, more or less
-they bottle straight from tank, the wines never see wood
-the young vine wine is sold in Europe, the old vine wine is aged longer and sold in the United States
-the bottles are numbered in the order that they are bottled. A higher number implies, somewhat, an older vine bottling.
-what is sold in the US is basically a Riserva, but it is not labelled any differently; they have some thought to change this in the future
-the Riserva Trebbiano is not decanted before release, like the Riserva red is
-with the European release and the US release of the Trebbiano, there is a difference in the approach to malo. For the European they do malo in tank. For the US release, the Riserva, they want the wine to go through malo in bottle. This is why when you open a bottle it sometimes has trapped CO2 gas in it. If you encounter that I would recommend decanting the bottle.
-the Trebbiano and the Montepulciano intended for the US are aged longer in the cellar before release.
-there is a little green flag insignia on the back of the European bottles. That is how you can tell the difference, basically.
-if you buy this wine gray market, you are buying a different wine
Hope that makes sense.
Wow, thank you, You’ve done a hell of a job explaining. Not sure the practice itself makes sense, though.
Well, then the French and UK retailers are ripping off their customers since they are charging US prices for the European wine (as shown by wine-searcher)…
Levi: Do you know how much of the Trebbiano gets exported to the U.S.? Thanks.
Wow, those lucky bastards, seems like they are actually getting the better wine! Hope they can tell the difference 
Another unfortunate upshot is that US and EU consumers are hardly in a position to meaningfully exchange tasting notes… 
.
Speaking of which, apparently EU consumers can hardly meaningfully exchange TNs either. Emidio Pepe is like a box of chocolates
(BTW, just minutes ago, I was actually advised by someone from the winery itself to literally open the bottle and check the cork to see if the year the bottle was decanted is marked on it. Then I’ll know whether my bottle is an old-vine Riserva or not. Sound customer advice, I’d say )
I don’t know.
I can tell you that the quantity of Trebbiano produced is considerably less than the quantity of Montepulciano produced.
That’s really interesting, Levi, I did not know that. Could this explain why I had two different looking bottles (I think one was brown, the other yellow) from two different domestic retailers and side-by-side, they had slightly different appearances as well?
Possibly. I am not sure about that. I hadn’t noticed a glass difference, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a difference.