The bad news keeps coming on this one. Buyer beware as always.
Given the price ($70), this is what I assumed from the outset. No VV stamp on the label, either, and I think that was in effect by the 2020 vintage.
my one bottle was toted back by my nephew directly from Abruzzo. I have hopes it will show better than this description, Brian—very sorry it didn’t show for you.
I think it’s reasonable to expect that it will, Mike, and I sure hope that it does. 
The 2021 from Lopa seems fine. Nice color and nothing off on the nose or palate. I’m not wowed at the moment and have had better Trebbiano Spoletino for a third of the price, but I’m still on my first glass. Perhaps it is too young. No import label and Italian label make me think this is the young vine intended for the Italian market.
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Had that 21 when in Italy in May - my first Pepe Trebbiano! Had same impressions as you on first night and wondered what the fuss was all about. Second night was a totally different and I saw the light. Ideally I would have waited 2-4 years to drink.
I drank the ‘04 and ‘05 Trebbianos at Emidio Pepe last week. Straight from their cellars certainly matters, but the wines were amazing.
Most of us (me included) are drinking these wines too young. EP told me so himself 
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Thanks Scott. It was my first try too. The second half of the bottle showed lots of improvement. I bought a three pack and also thought a few years more time would be a good idea, but I’m not sure about two decades! Given Brian’s bad luck with the 2020, I thought I should check in on it.
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Awesome! Biggest apparent changes with the age beyond the typical age characteristics?
None that old, but the 2012 and 2013 (both courtesy of your cellar I think) in the past couple of years have been outstanding and I think I liked a recent 2014 as well but my memory of that one is hazy.
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Forgot about the 12! That was quite fine. ‘13 from mag was special.
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I have been on a Pepe kick the last several years and can also report a number of bad bottles, unfortunately.
The real kick in the pants, however, was a newly imported bottle of 2000 Montepulciano that had been recorked at the winery just last year (2023) and the cork had TCA. So this bottle presumably sat in the cellar at Pepe for 23 years only to have someone put a tainted cork on it.
I brought this bottle to Burgundy and opened it for a winemaker friend who enjoys Italian wine - it was somewhat embarrassing.
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FIFY. No way you could have known. Save the embarrassment for when you bring a bottle of water to a wine tasting!
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Someone literally opened the bottle, tested it, put a new cork on it, exported it. I paid a premium for that. So it was fucking embarrassing.
Yeah- we got problems. This is becoming akin to opening white Burgundy. I realize my mentioning '18 is thread-drifting the '20, but it was undrinkable last night. '16-'20 continue to be problematic
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So glad I picked '20 as the one vintage to buy to see what all the fuss is about. 
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Yep that color!
Talking to the owner of the restaurant we went to last night, while drinking the 13 Valentini Trebb and I showed him the pics of my ox’d 16 and your bright yellow one. He agreed…too much a crap shoot to carry their whites. I’ll stick to Valentini and Tiberio there.
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Further thread drift, but I had a 750 of the 2016 MdA that was leaking, so I popped it earlier this year. It was a clear secondary fermentation and just…not good. Storage once I acquired it was not the issue.
I have a mag of the 2016 MdA, so far looks sound.
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Sorry for your bad experience. That is a real bummer. Is the wine mishandled at the winery as I hear they decant and recork their wines or something like that or is it a transportation or storage issue?
A couple weeks ago I pre-ordered a six-pack of the 2022 EP Trebbiano from Saratoga Wine. I have never tried it, but guess I will prepare myself for the worst when it arrives.
It’s a recent point of discussion, so not sure there’s a definitive. I’m a Pepe fan-boy, but hate that I now have 6 bad bottles of the '16, (4) 18 (1) , and-20 (1) in the past couple of years. And it seems that the problem is 2016 onward. I recently had a spectacular '07 at Emidio Pepe, an euqally compelling '13 that I opened from magnum for the ATL crew back in May, and a '12 last year that was humming.
Just my experiences.
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