CWD: 75 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

D

drssouth

Stephen South
With braised lamb shank
1975 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, alc 12.5%: Getting some brown tints to the dark red color and showing clearing at the edges...sweet nose with some anise/fennel...youthful on the palate with tar/asphalt, sweet currant, allspice and strawberry liqueur...soft and smooth with a long velvet-y finish...even better with the food..still some tannins remain...drinking very well
 
originally posted by drssouth:
CWD: 75 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'AbruzzoWith braised lamb shank
1975 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, alc 12.5%: Getting some brown tints to the dark red color and showing clearing at the edges...sweet nose with some anise/fennel...youthful on the palate with tar/asphalt, sweet currant, allspice and strawberry liqueur...soft and smooth with a long velvet-y finish...even better with the food..still some tannins remain...drinking very well
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Fantastic.

When this wine is good it is quite good.
 
Congrats on a good un! I had an '85 recently that was great, too. We brought it to a restaurant, where I had some house-made cavatelli with spicy sausage in a brown butter sage sauce. Not the easiest to pair, but it picked up the sage and fennel (in the sausage), and generally danced around on the palate. Such a fun wine. It was a bit more classic pair with my wife's brasiole, but even did OK with my sister's fish. A living wine carries on a conversation with the food that makes for a lot more versatility.
 
That food and wine conversation thing hits the nail on the head with Pepe's wines. They're "interesting" on their own but don't really come to life without food. As noted, their texture is such that they work with a lot of different types of food.

How long did each of you decant your 1975s? I usually like to give the Pepe wines 6-8 hours, but it sounds as if you just opened them and got right to it.

-Eden (I've always thought that it was the brown tints that were getting some red color and not the other way around)
 
How long did each of you decant your 1975s? I usually like to give the Pepe wines 6-8 hours, but it sounds as if you just opened them and got right to it.

This was a "backup" for a corked '82 la Consiellante... we just popped and poured..
I got 2.5 cases of this for a steal at an action last yr..so far 3 bottles have been great
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
How long did each of you decant your 1975s? I usually like to give the Pepe wines 6-8 hours, but it sounds as if you just opened them and got right to it.
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Mine was an '85. To distinguish between times I've sat with a bottle and times I've just tasted, bottles experienced are '78, '79, '82, and '95 (some multiple times, some also tasted additional times). For tastings, I've seen the '85 and more recent multiple times at portfolio shows, and I was at a Polaner vertical where they poured back to '64 (the first of Emidio's vintages and the first to be aged in bottle at the estate).

I think Polaner had decanted 3 hours or so prior, and we'd decant about that at the shop. Generally, I take a less aerating approach- pop and pour a half glass at the beginning of meal prep- generally an 1.5 hours or so, and let it breathe in bottle.

The '85 was similar- popped at a local wine shop, poured for a sniff and sip for the proprietor/friend, gingerly walked a couple of blocks to the restaurant, and left on the table to settle and breathe while we had a glass of Prosecco to start. And it showed wonderfully, though was certainly continually evolving. It would have been hard to say when it was "at peak"- all of the permutations were lovely.
 
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