Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2015 Emidio Pepe: The Ultimate Natural Wine?
Emidio Pepe’s wines are a certainty and find a place in the firmament of Italian wine, natural or not. And this 2015 Pepe Trebbiano, although still young and very acidic and far from its ideal harmony, already shows signs of great depth, refinement, and ambition.
The nearby sea and the rocky soils of the Appennines always give the wines from the Pepe winery a strong acidity and a mineral taste.
And if there are wines in Italy that we could define as natural without fear of denial, they are those of Emidio Pepe.
The grapes are harvested and then pressed with the feet; nothing is filtered, but the must is left to ferment for a few months in vitrified concrete, then bottled. The must is the juice of fresh grapes, full of flavors and aromas at their maximum expression.
The result is a wine with a thousand faces, light years away from the usual dull Trebbiano: this one from Pepe is a bomb of aromas, flavor, and freshness. He is still a baby.
The 2015 vintage is just born; it lacks balance, but there are no smudges, disgusting Brettanomyces, or uncontrolled oxidations.
Not everyone can afford to make such a natural wine. Not everyone has the luxury of these climatic conditions, or even the courage to be true winemakers.
Together with the Trebbiano di Valentini, it is the best Trebbiano in Italy, but it is not that we have discovered America. The two wineries have been saying this for years, but they have also been making wine with care and without using greasepaint or cellar techniques for the same amount of time.
The bouquet
With hints of citrus fruits, rocks, aromatic herbs, flowers, bergamot, thyme, and rosemary, this wine is elegant and sharp. The variety is vast, but the aromatic profile is clean, dry, and reminiscent of the sea.
The taste
In the mouth, it is salty with a mineral structure that leaves you amazed and cuts and caresses with elegance and fullness. Focused on a thick maturation but still far from perfect balance, this is a wine that needs to age in the bottle to develop its full aromatic potential.
At the moment, it is structured and very fresh, with a crazy citrus charge and a lot of pulp, but give it at least 3–4 years and it will start to round the edges. The pulp has potential for 10, 15, and 20 quiet years; it is not lacking and does not even have a hint of very delicate tannin.
Overall, it is a beautiful, fine wine, sculpted in the sea’s salt and the granite of Gran Sasso, and one of the best Italian white wines.
Price of Trebbiano 2015 Emidio Pepe
27-30 euros, an excellent price for a bottle of great natural wine.
Food Pairings
Drinking it now would be a shame. It’s good, but still incomplete. Nevertheless, if you want to combine it with Margherita pizza, Chicken Cacciatore, Vitello Tonnato, pasta alla carbonara, Pad Thai, it will not disappoint you.