Emidio Pepe EMIDIO PEPE Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo 2022

Description

Emidio Pepe Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo is a wine of character and depth. The wine opens to a medium dark raspberry color, and there are nice white cherry, raspberry and peach tones that float just below the surface. As the wine takes in more air, it begins to show subtle tones of cinnamon, white licorice, crushed stone and saffron. Emidio Pepe’s Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo reveals a very developed and elegant savory side which. The mouthfeel is medium weight, it goes well with fish cooked in a salt crust, with lemon, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Emidio Pepe is a singular producer creating extraordinarily complex reds and whites and rosés, worthy of aging in Abruzzo. The family has been making wines since the end of the 19th century, the winemaking process has remained philosophically unchanged! The Pepe vineyards are located in the northern province of Teramo, with soils rich in clay and limestone. In fact, the first 40 centimeters of the soils are clayey but underneath there is solid limestone. Trebbiano is trodden in wooden vats for two reasons: to avoid contact between the iron presses and the acids of the fruit and also for the material complexity resulting in the thin maceration that takes place when the trodden skins give their characteristics to the juice. The resulting white wines are slightly golden, well balanced and complex, with hints of dried fruit, hay and yellow fruits. Montepulciano bears little relation to most of the other wines of this appellation; they’re big, bold, and filled with the intense flavors of dried black cherries, licorice, and wild herbs. The Pepe winemaking regimen follows a super natural and artisanal path. The grapes are grown in a biodynamic way, harvested by hand, destemmed by hand, fermented with spontaneous yeasts and aged 18-24 months in vitrified cement tanks. The wines are bottled unfiltered and aged in their cellar in the bottle for continuous development. Before being marketed, the bottles of Montepulciano aged at least 10 years are decanted by hand into new and labeled bottles. A large stock of older vintages is kept in the cellar.