TN: 2016 Emidio Pepe - Trebbiano d'Abruzzo (Italy, Abruzzi, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo)

I’ve been very curious about this producer for a few years now, and even have a lone bottle of their Trebbiano in my cellar, but had not ever tried it until now. I loved the tension and energy this seems to have in reserve. Fun wine that will be a regular purchase moving forward.

2016 Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d’Abruzzo - Italy, Abruzzi, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (5/21/2019)
– Coravin pour at a restaurant; don’t know when bottle was originally tapped –
– tasted a single pour non-blind over approx. 1 hour –

NOSE: mostly mineral; “green”; apple cider.

BODY: slightly hazy; light maize color.

TASTE: light lambic taste; medium+ acidity; delicate; apple; apple cider; I loved this, and would be interested to see it with some meaningful age. Will be buying this for my own cellar moving forward. Gut impression score: 91 - 94.

Nice note. Had this a couple weeks back while in Montalcino ($36Eu off a list; lol) on a patio on a hot night and it was spectacular. Your note captures it well. Was surprised at how well it showed. With room for improvement. The best of several recent-ish vintages I’ve tasted. Would love to try one with some extended age…

Generally, how/why do you find this better than other recent vintages?

My lone bottle in the cellar is a 2015. I need to buy some of this '16!

I thought it more complete, and more expressive young than 14 and 15. '14 seemed a bit of a miss. '16 had more acid, a bit more balanced all around. The others were, fine, just not as complete. Setting could have influenced my positive opinion on the '16…

We drank several on our trip in May as well and I brought back a few too. Can’t believe how cheap it still is in Italy!

^This! Was in Rome and Florence in August of 2018 and drank multiple vintages of this wine at ridiculously low prices. That said, almost all the wines I drank at restaurants in Italy were either at or below retail pricing in the USA.

Yep. Yep.
My mistake was not bringing some back like David did!

Thanks to the OP for the TN. Picked up both the 2015 and 2016 from Envoyer for $50. But I’ve put them in long term storage and don’t plan to touch them for at least a few more years. Everything I’ve read leads me to believe that these will be better at 6-10 years post vintage. I also have been buying multiple vintages of the Valentini Trebbiano from Envoyer. Pricier than the E. Pepe but even longer lived.

The Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d’Abruzzo sold in the US is old vines, with malo in bottle. The Pepe Trebbiano d’Abruzzo sold in Italy is typically the young vines, with malo done in vat. They are not the same wine. It is cheaper in Italy because it is a different wine. Same thing with the Pepe Montepulciano. In the US it is old vines, in Italy, typically the young vines.

We are talking about completely different vineyards here, trained differently.

They announced on Instagram last year that they would be changing the labeling to indicate the old vines bottlings. I posted a link to the announcement in a prior Pepe thread.

Jeez. I had no idea. My ignorance of Italian wine is showing.

More info here for those, like me, who did not know this:

1 Like

Wellllll … hell. My glass came from Roscioli, in Rome. Now I have no idea which version I had.

In all fairness, this particular situation is confusing and not well known.

1 Like

95% you had a young vines wine.

In terms of which of the young vines wines, you will never know. They do not blend the vats. So in reality there are several different young vine wines, and several old vine wines.

The good news is that all of them are delicious! [cheers.gif]

Tom

Hi Levi,

I read the PDF with the explanation of the distribution of the young vs old vine wines. It makes sense to me. But unless I’m mistaken, it seems to say that this only applies to the Montepulciano. The explanation for the Montepulciano says:

To better explain the difference in vintages: the current release in Italy is 2016 Montepulciano, which have come from our younger plots whereas the current release in USA and Asia is 2010 Montepulciano.
So, if you are in America, Asia or anywhere outside of Europe and you see any younger vintage than 2010 Montepulciano it means they are younger vines wine which have been brought over through unauthorized market.
Likewise if you are in Europe outside of Italy, if you find vintages younger than 2014 Montepulciano.

But the page dedicated to Trebbiano makes no distinction between young and old vines. In fact, what I infer from the description is that they ONLY make old vine Trebbiano. The only thing that is changing in 2019 is that they are adding the “Selezione Vecchie Vigne” stamp to the bottles.

Am I wrong in this interpretation?

It DOES say that the Trebbiano is released earlier in Italy than in the rest of Europe and USA, though. Last year they released the 2016 vintage in Italy, 2015 in Europe, and 2014 in the USA. I bought both the 2015 and 2016 from Envoyer last year, so it appears that these bottles were imported directly from Italy. That makes sense, as Envoyer does that a lot.

Andrew,

I detailed the differences a few years ago in this post:

Please check there for the answer to your question.

A somm in Italy mentioned this to me when I ordered a bottle. I assumed they were just making a more Western-style wine for our palates but didn’t realize it was qualitatively that much different. Makes sense.

It isn’t so much a stylistic difference, as the difference in intended drinking window. The old vines is intended to be ageable and drunk later. The young vines is intended to be consumed earlier (for a lower price tag).

Fascinating Levi. Thanks for the link to your prior explanation. I bought my bottles last year from Envoyer @ $50 USD. They imported them directly from Italy. The bottle numbers on my 2015s are very low: 00023 and 00086.

I was confused by your previous post because you initially said that the old vine wine is bottled in the spring so that malo occurs in bottle, while they let malo occur in the vat with the young wine and bottle it later. But you later said that the old wines are bottled last and therefore have higher bottle numbers. Could you clarify? And based on the bottle numbers above do you think these are the young or old vine bottling?

I appreciate your input!

1 Like