The Farmer Who Bottled Time
In the hills of Teramo, between the Adriatic Sea and the Gran Sasso massif, a self-taught farmer named Emidio Pepe — who bottled his first wine in 1964 against his own father's advice — proved that Montepulciano and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo could produce some of the longest-lived, most soulful wines in Italy. No oak. No filtration. No sulphites. Just hand-destemmed grapes, foot treading, glass-lined concrete, and patience measured in decades.
Origin — 1964, the Cooperative & the Suitcase to New York
Emidio Pepe — born Agostino Pepe in 1932 — grew up in Torano Nuovo, a medieval hill town in the province of Teramo, northern Abruzzo. His family had grown grapes and made wine for their own table since the nineteenth century, but like everyone else in the region, they sold whatever surplus they had in bulk — to neighbours, to the local cooperative. Wine from Abruzzo had a poor reputation, and Emidio's father disapproved when his son announced he would bottle wine under the family name. Emidio remained undissuaded. In 1964, the year he took over the family farm, he made the decision that would change the destiny of a region: he would stop selling grapes and start bottling wine.
He was entirely self-taught — a farmer who had left school young, who learned winemaking with the equipment on the farm and by trial and error, guided by one stubborn conviction: that Montepulciano, then dismissed as a workhorse variety for early-drinking bulk wine, was capable of greatness if the vines were tended by hand and the wine was given time. He kept his vineyards organic from the very beginning — not as a marketing statement, but because, having grown up working the land manually, he simply never saw the point of chemicals.
The establishment was not interested. When the local wine consortium organised a promotional trip to New York in the early 1970s, the Pepe winery was considered too small to be included. So Emidio packed a suitcase with a few bottles, flew to New York on his own, spoke no English, walked into the first Italian restaurant he could find — and the following day met an Italian-speaking importer. That was the start. He would go on to make at least eighty trips to the United States, building one of the most devoted followings of any Italian producer. An early and indispensable champion was chef Lidia Bastianich, who recommended his wines from the earliest days of her restaurant empire.
Emidio became known worldwide as "Mister Montepulciano" — the man who gave the grape its first opportunity to shine as a noble variety. He passed away in July 2026, aged 94, but the estate he built lives on exactly as he made it: his daughters Sofia and Daniela run the winery, and the fourth generation — granddaughters Chiara, who oversees vineyards and winemaking, and Elisa, who develops hospitality and the estate's cultural life — now shape its future. His name remains on every bottle. His philosophy remains in every glass.
The Place — The Adriatic, the Gran Sasso & the Pergola
The Emidio Pepe estate covers approximately 15 hectares of vines around Torano Nuovo, in the northernmost pocket of Abruzzo near the Marche border. The vineyards are straddled by the Adriatic Sea on one side and the Gran Sasso massif on the other — one of the great, under-celebrated terroir corridors of Italy. The mountain pulls cool air down at night, producing a diurnal shift of 10–12°C that preserves acidity even in scorching vintages, while constant winds off the mountains and the sea act as a natural fan, keeping disease pressure low. The soils are clay-limestone, alive and spongy, easily compacted — which is why tractor use is kept to an absolute minimum.
Casa Pepe — The Original 1.5 Hectares Around the House
The original family vineyards, 1.5 hectares surrounding the house where Emidio was born, are planted to Montepulciano d'Abruzzo trained in the historic pergola system — Emidio was a firm believer that the pergola was the key to making elegant Montepulciano, shielding the skins from the fierce Abruzzo sun and preserving a finer quality of tannin and natural acidity. He replanted the vineyard in 1974 by massal selection, taking cuttings from a cousin's oldest, best-adapted vines. The plot faces south and today produces one of the estate's two single-vineyard old-vine wines, bottled separately since the 2020 vintage after soil mapping with geologist Brenna Quigley revealed how distinct the site's expression is.
Branella — Planted 1966, Acquired 1981
Branella, the estate's other great old-vine parcel, was planted in 1966 and purchased by Emidio in 1981. It faces south-east and lies only a few hundred metres from Casa Pepe — yet the wines are unmistakably different, a living demonstration of terroir that the family now showcases by bottling the two sites separately. Since 2020, the single-vineyard mapping project has opened what the family calls a new chapter in the study of Montepulciano — the genetic and geological differences between neighbouring plots translating into markedly different expressions of the same grape, farmed and made in exactly the same way.
The Trebbiano Plot — Planted 1988, A Clone Like No Other
In 1988, Emidio planted Trebbiano d'Abruzzo — a distinct, ancient indigenous variety, not to be confused with Trebbiano Toscano — again from cuttings taken from his cousin. The Pepe family's old-vine Trebbiano material is genetically unlike anything else in the region: thicker skins, higher acidity, a completely different architecture. Roughly 3,000 plants are interplanted with around 40 vines of Malvasia. An irrigation system was built as a safeguard during the scorching summer of 2003; it has never once been used — the old vines' deep root systems find their own water, even in drought years.
Pecorino, Biodynamics & the Living Farm
Pecorino, the other great indigenous variety of the Abruzzo–Marche border, was planted on a north-facing slope in 2005 (first harvest 2010) — the family wanting to give it the same devoted protection they had given Trebbiano. The estate began exploring biodynamics in 2005 and is certified (Demeter, from 2006) — though as Chiara Pepe notes, when they read Steiner's lectures they realised they were already practising most of it: composting, lunar attention, ancestral methods simply passed down. Today the preparations are applied, cover crops such as fava beans fix nitrogen naturally, and experiments continue — milk sprays against mildew, pine sap as a natural "glue" for sulphur and copper, allowing them to use less. Since 2010, the family has even researched its wild yeast populations with the university of Trentino, mapping the invisible life that ferments every Pepe wine.
Winemaking — The Hand Destem, the Foot Tread & the Cathedral of Concrete
Nothing at Emidio Pepe has changed since 1964, because nothing needed to. The grapes are hand-harvested and hand-destemmed — the reds are destemmed on a net so that only the berries, never the bitter stems, fall through into the vat. The white grapes are foot-trodden in long wooden open tubs — around 45 minutes per 300kg of grapes — to release the juice gently. Fermentation is always spontaneous, with only the wild yeasts on the skins, and every wine is raised in glass-lined concrete tanks. There has never been a wooden barrel on this estate, and there never will be. No cultured yeast, no sulphites, no fining, no filtration, no temperature control.
The concrete is not a cost-saving device; it is a creed. As the family puts it: "Concrete tanks are the home of the wine, its natural habitat, a neutral and hospitable place that leaves the wine free to express itself without external influences." Glass-lining keeps oxygen at bay while the wine slowly, reductively, on its fine lees, assembles itself. The whites ferment and rest in concrete for around 18 months without racking unless absolutely necessary — the reduction acting, as Emidio always said, like a coat the wine wears while young, which it later absorbs. The reds undergo a gentle 7–9 day infusion-style maceration, the cap broken only once a day and only if necessary, before 18 to 24 months in concrete — then, crucially, years of bottle ageing before release.
And then there is the family's most quietly radical act: decantation. Because the wines are never filtered, every bottle destined for release after long ageing is hand-decanted by the family — a skill perfected by Emidio's wife Rosa, who for decades decanted every bottle to order in her small studio. The family has recently stretched the waiting window before decanting begins from ten to twenty years, letting the wines settle ever longer on their own terms. There is even a Pepe-kept secret: in most years, the wine from the 1988 Trebbiano planting is bottled before malolactic fermentation — so the malo happens in the bottle itself, the CO₂ formed helping the wine to age, eventually dissolving into it. Taste a bottle of 2010 Trebbiano and it seems as if it were bottled yesterday.
Perhaps most telling of all is the release philosophy. The estate bottles twice: a younger-vine, earlier-drinking cuvée for the Italian market only, and — for export — only the old-vine Montepulciano, stamped "Selezione Vecchie Vigne" since the 2010 vintage, aged in the cellar for a minimum of five years and released only when the family judges the vintage to be at its most expressive. No annual release schedule. No market pressure. The wine decides. As Chiara says of the Trebbiano: "To understand the real Trebbiano, you have to wait six or seven years. They are introverts when they are young — their flavour compounds appear with time."
The Wines — From the Pergola of Casa Pepe to the Malo-in-Bottle Trebbiano
Emidio Pepe produces roughly 70,000–80,000 bottles a year across a deliberately small range: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Pecorino, and Cerasuolo. There are no "little wines" here. Every cuvée is farmed biodynamically, hand-harvested, hand-destemmed or foot-trodden, fermented with wild yeast, raised in glass-lined concrete and bottled without fining, filtration or sulphites. Production from young vines is reserved for the local market; the wines that travel are the old-vine selections, aged for years before anyone outside the family tastes them.
Emidio Pepe "Selezione Vecchie Vigne" Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Red — Torano Nuovo, TeramoThe iconic wine — the only Montepulciano d'Abruzzo the estate exports, and the wine that redefined the grape for the world. From the ancient pergola-trained old vines — now bottled as the single vineyards Casa Pepe and Branella since the 2020 vintage, though previously blended under the Vecchie Vigne stamp. Hand-destemmed onto a net so only berries reach the vat, gently macerated 7–9 days in infusion style, aged 18–24 months in glass-lined concrete (never oak), then rested in bottle for a minimum of five years — often far longer — and hand-decanted to order before sale. In youth: dried black cherry, licorice, wild herbs, sinewy tannin. With two decades: musk, tobacco box, dried roses, and a finish that seems to have no end. Considered by many to be one of Italy's greatest red wines. Zero sulphites. No filtration.
Emidio Pepe "Casa Pepe" Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Single Vineyard Red — Torano NuovoSince the 2020 vintage, the wine from the estate's original 1.5-hectare plot around the family house — replanted by Emidio in 1974 via massal selection from a cousin's best vines, on a south-facing slope — is bottled as a single vineyard. Soil mapping with geologist Brenna Quigley revealed how distinct its expression is from its neighbour Branella, despite the two lying only a few hundred metres apart. Same methods as ever: hand destemming, infusion maceration, glass-lined concrete, long bottle age, hand decantation. A wine of depth, warmth and structured, sun-facing power. Extremely limited. Zero sulphites.
Emidio Pepe "Branella" Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Single Vineyard Red — Torano NuovoThe second single-vineyard Montepulciano, from the plot planted in 1966 and acquired by Emidio in 1981 — south-east facing, a stone's throw from Casa Pepe, yet producing a wine of different contour and voice: cooler-toned, more vertical, a brilliant counter-argument in the family's living demonstration of terroir. Made exactly the same way as Casa Pepe — which is precisely the point. When two vineyards farmed and vinified identically produce unmistakably different wines, the only variable left is the place itself. Extremely limited. Zero sulphites.
Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
White — Torano Nuovo, TeramoFrom the 1988 planting of old-vine Trebbiano d'Abruzzo — a unique, thick-skinned, high-acid selection interplanted with around 40 vines of Malvasia. The grapes are foot-trodden in wooden tubs (~45 minutes per 300kg) and fermented spontaneously in glass-lined concrete, where the wine rests ~18 months on its lees in reductive conditions, racked only if strictly necessary. In most years it is bottled before malolactic fermentation — the malo then happens slowly in the bottle, the trapped CO₂ protecting the wine as it ages. The family holds it back and releases it years later: "You can't call it a Trebbiano if it's four or five years old — it's not a Trebbiano... yet." Young bottles are taut and minerally; with 6–10 years the wine becomes golden, radiant, and astonishingly complex — tangerine, hazelnut, herbal tea, hay, leather. Zero sulphites. No filtration.
Emidio Pepe Pecorino Colli Aprutini
White — Torano Nuovo, TeramoThe youngest sibling and the extrovert of the family — Pecorino, the ancient variety of the Abruzzo–Marche border mountains, planted by Sofia Pepe on a north-facing slope in 2005, first harvested in 2010. Made exactly like the Trebbiano — foot-trodden, wild yeast, glass-lined concrete, reductive lees ageing — but a completely different personality: voluptuous, generous, profusely aromatic yet delicate on the palate, its high malic acid developing a creamy texture that loves the family's long-ageing regimen. Chiara calls it "the younger, naughtier sister... Pecorino is talkative straightaway." Where Trebbiano broods, Pecorino cartwheels. Only ~6,000 bottles a vintage. Zero sulphites.
Emidio Pepe Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
Rosato — Torano Nuovo, TeramoAbruzzo's great traditional rosato, made here in the most literal way imaginable: Montepulciano vinified exactly like the white wines — foot-trodden, direct to glass-lined concrete, spontaneous fermentation, long lees rest — producing a light, juicy, deliciously drinkable pink of unusual substance and nerve. Produced primarily for the local Italian market, like the young-vine Montepulciano, keeping the estate's relationship with its home community as vital as its export legend. If you find a bottle outside Abruzzo, consider it a gift. Zero sulphites. No filtration.
Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (Young Vines) & Old Vintages from the Cellar
Red — Torano Nuovo | Library ReleasesTwo parallel truths of the estate. First: the wine from younger Montepulciano vines — earlier-drinking, vibrant, less extracted — is bottled for the Italian domestic market only, never exported. Second: the library. Because Emidio held back roughly 40% of every vintage since the beginning, the cellar's 350,000+ bottles span more than six decades — the family regularly releases old vintages (1970s, 1980s, 1990s) decanted by hand to order, a practice with virtually no parallel in the wine world. The 1985, as Chiara says, "looks like grandfather. It never seems to age. Fierce, with a strong attitude." These are not museum pieces; they are living wines, released when ready, decanted when ordered. Zero sulphites. Decades of patience in every bottle.
Legacy — Mister Montepulciano & the Patience of Four Generations
Emidio Pepe's legacy is, first of all, vineyard-based. At a time — the 1960s and 1970s — when all of Italy was industrialising wine as fast as possible, a self-taught farmer in Teramo refused: no chemicals, no tractors compacting living soil, no replacing pergolas with modern training, no selling to the cooperative. He stayed small — the estate still makes only around 70,000–80,000 bottles a year — and he stayed organic and then biodynamic when almost nobody in Abruzzo even used the word. The soils of Torano Nuovo have never seen a pesticide, and the old vines — massal selections planted in 1966, 1974 and 1988 — carry genetic material that exists almost nowhere else on Earth.
His legacy is cellar-based: the radical, decades-long refusal to release wines before their time, and the 350,000-bottle library that makes old Pepe available to anyone who asks — every bottle hand-decanted by the family before it leaves the estate. In a wine world obsessed with the newest vintage, the Pepe cellar is an act of quiet civil disobedience. When Emidio began, Montepulciano was considered a wine for early consumption. Today, a 40-year-old Pepe is proof that he was right about everything.
And his legacy is familial and regional. He gave Montepulciano "its first opportunity to shine as a noble variety"; he put Abruzzo — once absent entirely from the map of Italian wine regions — on the world wine map; he was celebrated from New York to London as a beloved, gloriously idiosyncratic creator of wines, and received the Golden Vines Sustainability Award by Liquid Icons in 2023. Since his passing in July 2026, daughters Sofia and Daniela and the fourth generation — Chiara in the vineyards and cellar, Elisa in hospitality — continue the work without a single change of method. The name on the bottle is the grandfather's; the hands on the vines are his descendants'; the philosophy in the glass is unchanged since 1964.
From a suitcase carried to New York against the wishes of the establishment, to a cellar of 350,000 patiently waiting bottles, to a table in the family agriturismo in the house where Emidio was born — the story of Emidio Pepe is the story of what happens when a farmer decides that great wine is not made, but gently nurtured, and that the most important ingredient in winemaking is not a grape, a yeast, or a tank — but time. The pergola remembers. The concrete waits. And the wine, as always, decides for itself.