Winemaker Notes
Very deep red-black when young, with aromas and flavors of raw meat, black fruit (including blackcurrant), expensive leather, hints of bacon, ink, and dry-cured olive; a big, beefy wine but not bitter or alcoholic, surprisingly fresh in most vintages for such a substantial wine. Older bottles shade to Hermitage-like brickish red with aromas and flavors of berries, roast meat, forest-floor, dried orange-peel, and many others, with superb elegant texture. My definition of fine wine is that it’s indescribable, and words fail me here. One of Italy’s best aged reds.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Rustic and well-structured, offering an attractive mix of mature spice box, leather and forest floor notes, with a concentrated core of wild cherry and gamy blackberry fruit. Full-bodied, featuring a long, chewy finish of coffee and iron. Non-blind Emidio Pepe vertical (May 2013). Best from 2015 through 2030.
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Vinous
The utterly classic 2000 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Vecchie Vigne wafts up with an earthy mix of underbrush, savory herbs and musky animal tones before releasing its hints of mulled cherry and crushed plums. This enters the palate with the silkiest of textures that communicate pure elegance and balance. Ripe red fruits saturate and leave a mineral staining under an air of tobacco. Through it all, a core of vibrant acidity maintains perfect balance. The 2000 finishes lightly structured, long and buzzing with energy. This textbook vintage of Emidio Pepe is a pure pleasure to taste and has many years of steady, positive evolution packed into it. That said, make sure to give the wine some time to open in bottle to really unlock its aromatics. What a darling.
Montepulciano is the second most planted red variety in Italy after Sangiovese, though it is achieves its highest potential in the region of Abruzzo. Consistently enticing and enjoyable, Montepulciano enjoys great popularity throughout central and southern Italy as well. A tiny bit grows with success in California, Argentina and Australia. Somm Secret—Montepulciano is also the name of a village in Tuscany where, confusingly, they don’t grow the Montepulciano grape at all! Sangiovese shines in yet another Tuscan village, here making the reputable wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
This significant Tuscan village—not to be confused with the red grape of the same name widely grown in Abruzzo and the Marche regions—was home to one of the first four Italian DOCGs granted in 1980.
Based on the Sangiovese grape (here called Prugnolo Gentile), the village’s prized wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano ranks stylistically in between Chianti Classico, for its finesse, and Brunello di Montalcino for its power. With a deep ruby color, heavy concentration and a firm structure given by the village's heavy, cool clay soils, most Vino Nobile di Montepulciano will demand some bottle age.