My son landed his first ‘real’ job post-college after graduating this year and is off to Tampa next week to start work. Figured we’d check in on his birth-year wine from Emidio Pepe as part of celebrations and goodbyes…
2001 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - Italy, Abruzzi, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (8/3/2025)
2024 cork. I'll just keep beating the drum that these wines are idiosyncratic, beautiful and seemingly timeless. The freshness of fruit is the Pepe hallmark that I cannot fully grasp. This plum and black cherry fruit here tastes 5 years old. Not in a sense that the wine is tight and needs time, rather, it just taste fresh. And weightless. The wine has developed some tertiary tar and ash scents with a wild briary aspect. The palate is stone clean, a minerality, and soft dark fruit that feels regal. The wine barely changes with two hours open. Amazing stuff. I'd put this behind 2000 and 2002 at the moment for the turn of the century vintages, but its a gem nonetheless.
Great note, thanks for sharing.
Ive only had the white Emidio Pepe which I really enjoyed.
Wanted to add that a very similar impression I have had from another Italian, also a rather legendary maker for its respective region, Foradori.
Various bottles with around 20 year aging that really have barely moved and also have similar dark fruit taste profile.
I friend brought a 2001 Valentini Montepuliciano to dinner a couple of weeks ago, which was fabulous. A 2002 he brought three years ago was even more stunning, even though that was not a great year in general.
Is there any other appellation where the quality differential between the handful of very top producers and the mass of producers is so extreme?
@rob_klafter brought a ‘98 Valentini MdA to a dinner last year and it edged out my ‘02 Pepe on the table by a hair. Both Compelling wines that seem to age well forever.
Yep '02 is awesome, unlike the rep for most of Europe.
It was @Mike_Grammer wotn at our big Canadian invasion dinner last August. I bought a 6er direct form Pepe and four bottles thus far have been A+
Further, if one extrapolates from Valentini and Pepe in Abruzzo, does this mean that any “lesser” grape can be made into a top-tier wine with the right hands?
Not to the same extreme, but I find a huge difference between better producers and lesser ones in Champagne and Riesling from Alsace also. I think the big difference to me is that in these two regions there are a decent number of quality producers. For example, when I went to the Fete de Champagne, almost all the wines were excellent. But, at a couple of store tastings of a bunch of Champagnes years ago there were a lot of wines that were mostly bubbles and acid.
Could be that I only know Pepe in d’Abruzzo and two or three producers in Taurasi and when I have tried other producers that I see at Italian restaurants they are not very good. There could be more better producers that I am not familiar with.
This was my for-sure wine of the night. Absolute love for me. A panoply of red fruit mixes with a shake of cocoa and a dotting of soy. And it’s so suave and delightful. Caresses my tongue with baking spices added to the replays. There really is no substitute—one of the great and unique wines out there. I do think this was right in the hitting window in terms of age. Shudderlicious. 94
