Emidio Pepe, Pioneering Vintner of Italy’s Abruzzo Region, Dies

Emidio Pepe, founder of one of Abruzzo’s benchmark producers and a pioneer of biodynamic winemaking in Italy, died July 28. He was 94.

“The passing of Emidio Pepe deprives us of one of the greatest figures in Italian viticulture,” said Alessandro Nicodemi, in a statement issued by the Abruzzo wine consortium, where he serves as president in addition to helming his family estate, Fattoria Nicodemi. “Emidio was, first and foremost, a man of extraordinary integrity. He believed in his land, his vineyards and his vision for wine at a time when few would have bet on Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Pepe never chased trends, never sought shortcuts. He steadfastly pursued a clear vision.”

Pepe founded his namesake estate in 1964, harvesting grapes from 3.7 acres of vines previously worked by his father to produce bulk wine. At the time, most of Abruzzo’s signature red wine, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, was sold in bulk or produced for a family’s personal consumption, as Pepe’s family had done since 1899. Pepe believed that both Montepulciano and the white grape Trebbiano showed great potential to age in bottle.

“My grandfather was the first to bottle [in the region], in order to show people that Montepulciano can age. Even [his] dad thought he was crazy,” said Pepe’s granddaughter, Chiara De Iulis Pepe, in a 2014 Wine Spectator interview. Today De Iulis Pepe splits her time overseeing winemaking at the family winery in Abruzzo and in the Rhône Valley at Jaboulet’s Domaine de la Chapelle.

An Iconoclast in the Vineyards and Cellar

Part of Emidio Pepe’s vision included eschewing the industrial approach to viticulture that was on the rise during the 1960s. He adopted practices that brought him to the forefront of biodynamic winemaking, ultimately receiving formal certification in 2006. Instead of using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, Pepe planted cover crops, pulled leaves to manage air flow through the canopy and sprayed copper sulfate and other biodynamic treatments. Never exposed to synthetic chemicals, the vines developed a natural resistance to disease, he believed.

And instead of tractors and machine harvesters, even today the team conducts vine management and harvest by hand. White grapes are crushed by foot; red grapes are rolled, encouraging the berries to drop from the bunch without breaking the stem. Both techniques limit the release of bitter components while preserving and infusing all the grape skin’s natural yeasts in the juice.

Fermentation in neutral, glass-lined concrete tanks occurs spontaneously due to the wide diversity of yeasts found among the estate’s plots. The team does not filter the wine nor add sulfites. Although the winery flirted with oak barrels in 2003 in order to meet newly established appellation regulations mandating six month’s aging in oak to label a wine as DOCG Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane, they quickly sold them, opting to skip the appellation name.

“Grandfather says the oak makes the wine very old very quickly, instead of finding longevity. We like it when the complexity comes from the grape, not from the oak,” said De Iulis Pepe.

“Emidio Pepe was definitely a gentleman,” said Douglas Polaner, Pepe’s U.S. importer for more than 20 years. “He had a quiet intensity to him, along with strong opinions on how to manage both his vineyards and cellar.”

Emidio Pepe’s philosophy of viticulture is maintained by his granddaughter Chiara in their vineyards today. (Clay McLachlan/claymclachlan.com)

The second part of Pepe’s vision was to retain a significant part of each vintage’s production for long aging. He held back 50% of each vintage’s bottles in reserve; in a promising vintage that figure increases to as much as 70% to 80%. The cellar typically holds about 350,000 bottles at any given time, including bottles from roughly 30 to 35 different vintages.

Usually, the winery releases a vintage after nine or 10 years. But a semi-annual tasting session determines whether or not a vintage is ready. The 1983 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, for example, was not released until 20 years after harvest. Before release, each of the vintage’s bottles is opened by hand, in order to decant away the sediment. The bottle is refilled with the same vintage and since 2012, the year of decantation is noted on the cork.

An Ambassador For Abruzzo

“What struck me most [about Emidio] was his extraordinary ability to communicate and connect with people,” said Michele Bernetti, whose family winery Umani Ronchi produces wine from both Marche and Abruzzo. “Through his authenticity, passion and empathy, he was able to convey not only the uniqueness of his wines, but also the deeper cultural and human value behind them.”

Despite advancing years, Pepe remained a strong presence at the winery as well as a representative for the Abruzzo region and Italian wine overall. He was always ready to open an older vintage for visiting journalists, allowing the wine to advocate his beliefs. Over the past two decades he gradually passed responsibility for the winery to two of his daughters, Sofia and Daniela, as well as his granddaughters, Chiara and Elisa.

“Our thoughts are with his daughters and granddaughters at this difficult time,” said mother-daughter duo Marina Cvetić and Miriam Lee Masciarelli of Abruzzo’s Masciarelli winery, in an email. “They have already been carrying his vision forward with extraordinary dedication, and we have no doubt they will continue to do so. Emidio Pepe’s legacy will live on in every bottle.”

Pepe is survived by his daughters, Sofia, Daniela and Stefania, a winemaker who runs her own estate, and his granddaughters, Chiara and Elisa.

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