Emidio Pepe question

One producer: Emidio Pepe
One wine: Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
One vintage: 2001
Two importers: Cadet and Polaner
Two labels: similar, except one has "Fattoria Pepe" on it
Two colors of bottle: 1 brown (Cadet), 1 green (Polaner)
Two occlusions: 1 semi-cloudy / 1 like LA smog

Do any Pepe experts here know if the same wine is in the bottles, or are there different bottlings ala Jasmin of the same vintage?

Mark, for what it's worth, the Polaner website shows the label for 2001 with "Fattoria Pepe" on it.

http://www.polanerselections.com/portfo ... rodID=1753

Cadet doesn't show emidio Pepe as one of their stable on their site although the site is a little clunky: http://www.cadetwines.com/

As a guess, it appears the Polaner version is made to Polaner specs.

My Italian isn't good enough to figure if that's true from the Emidio Pepe site -- which is awfully good. http://www.emidiopepe.com/

Regards, Bob

Emidio Pepe's wines are totally organic and natural. He may not even add sulfites and I think they even stomp the grapes with their feet (in rubber boots of course). So I think bottle variation is very possible for a Pepe wine.
I happen to like their wines, especially their Montepulciano D'Abruzzo. I tasted a whole array at Vinitaly and especially enjoyed the 2001, 2000 and 1998. Some of the really old vintages I found oxidized.

Try it and see.

There's a great photo of wine stomping -- with boots -- on their website:

http://www.emidiopepe.com/DB18/LayoutP/ ... 2=&db=DB18

Picked by hand
Pressed by young ladies feet
The grapes become must
And the must ……wine
And it seems that Nature does everything

Haven't seen their wines in this area, but I'll check them out, Agostino, if I can find some.

Regards, Bob

I think it is just an artifact and implies nothing about the wines.

- Both my 2001 and 1995 whites says Fattoria Pepe. One has a Cadet import sticker and there was none (or I didn't keep) on the 1995.

- The reds have a funny difference : Front labels identical. The back label of the 1975 has the website listed! (Seers as well as winemakers?) The 1977 doesn't.

Pepe bottles vat by vat, so there is definite bottle variation. I am pretty sure they don't deliberately make seperate cuvées for different importers, but they may very well bottle and label differently for them. With the labels, you may very well have a case where an old batch of labels was used up and then the remainder were labelled with a new one.

Though the site doesn't say so, I was told that Pepe also bottles when they feel the wine is ready. That can mean that different vats from the same vintage are released at very different times. From my red labels, it is pretty clear there are different releases from the winery which are then labelled at the time.

In short, you can expect differences in the wines, but they have nothing to do with anything other than the winemaker's way of doing things.

Enjoy. They are remarkable wines. Here are my recent notes on a white and a red :

• 1995 Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d'Abruzzo - Italy, Abruzzi, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo (1/28/2006)
  A weekend of Jacky Truchot; 1/28/2006-1/29/2006 (Washington DC): Explosive nose with olives, clove, orange peel, herbal tea. Definite spritz and alive body. Moderate acids, gelatin, spice and lime rickey elements. Good finish with solid body. Idiosyncratic and full of character. Greatly enjoyable and delicious with a snack of tuna tataki.
• 1977 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - Italy, Abruzzi, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (12/16/2005)
  Dinner @ Phil and Jen's: Funky nose with ratafia and brick dust elements. Dried leaves and dried berries. Another wine which requires you to come to it. Loads going on here. Serious acids take some getting past, but great earth and cherry pits and brick dust. Definite hard edges here, but elegance and persistence as well. Really warms and struts it stuff with the lamb and risotto.

Posted from CellarTracker

A.

Thanks guys!

Bob, it's funny that the Cadet-imported label looked like the one from the Polaner website, but the Polaner label looked similar but didn't have the 'Fattoria Pepe' part on it.

Andrew, thank you for your notes and info as well. Wish these weren't so pricey, but they are true artisinal products. The multiple bottling part makes me think this would be a good wine to try from different stores/importers to allow tasting through the variability issues.

Mark

- The reds have a funny difference : Front labels identical. The back label of the 1975 has the website listed! (Seers as well as winemakers?) The 1977 doesn't.

They store older vintages at the winery, and wineries that do that apply labels when the wine is sold, so there's nothing odd about having the website on an older bottle.

They also bottle by siphon, bottle by bottle, so that might explain some bottle variation.

- The reds have a funny difference : Front labels identical. The back label of the 1975 has the website listed! (Seers as well as winemakers?) The 1977 doesn't.

They store older vintages at the winery, and wineries that do that apply labels when the wine is sold, so there's nothing odd about having the website on an older bottle.

I should have known smilies were necessary to indicate I was being facetious, but it was amusing to see how fast someone would leap in to "correct" me. As I noted later on :

From my red labels, it is pretty clear there are different releases from the winery which are then labelled at the time.

A.

I didn't realise you were raising questions and then answering them yourself, no.

It's supposed to be a sign of creativity, though.

At vinitaly I hung out with Pepe's daughter's husband who is a very cool guy. I even put in an order which I've been meaning to drive down and pick up. The 2001 red is 15 Euros a bottle from the cellar, the 1998 20 Euros. So they aren't that expensive. Unfortunately in NYC I saw these bottles for 60 bucks. Obviously they are rare and unique so importers take advantage of that.

Come visit me and we'll drive down together and pick up some good wine at decent prices!

"Bob, it's funny that the Cadet-imported label looked like the one from the Polaner website, but the Polaner label looked similar but didn't have the 'Fattoria Pepe' part on it. "

That is strange, isn't it? I wouldn't have predicted that iteration. :-(