As they said in "Amici Miei"? "What is genius? It is imagination, intuition, a quick eye, and speed of execution." Thus, a work trip to Abruzzo turns into a wonderful two-day pleasure trip, but don’t tell my wife!
The premises were anything but pleasant; a quick delivery from Florence to Teramo with a return in the evening, a colossal effort. Suddenly, however, the intuition: why not ask a friend if he would like to come with me and turn the transhumance into a two-day vacation with wine cellar visits included? Said and done. We organized everything in no time: first the duty, of course, Friday afternoon as soon as we arrived, we would immediately take care of the commitment for which I had left, and then right away: aperitifs on the beach, dinners, tastings here, tastings there. A hard work.
Abruzzo is a land that I love; I have been there many times, but each time I have to reconnect with it, I must find harmony, and so we start from the basics.
We begin again with a nice Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, enjoyed on a patio in Tortoreto Lido, with a friend I had gone to visit. I probably should have started with a Passerina or a Pecorino, but I wanted to reconcile myself with the world of Trebbianos: here it is, a fantastic Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Superiore from the Terraviva winery.
A surprise for me, a small reality located right in Tortoreto, with vineyards that look out at the sea in a beautiful setting. I don't know if it was the sea that was 20 meters away influencing me or the vineyards of this winery that truly feel its strong influence, but this Trebbiano Superiore is liquid gold with an incredible minerality, I’d say graphite on the nose, and a complexity that I have found in few other Trebbiano Superiores. This wine will have many, many years ahead of it; I'm ready to bet on that.
“We came to taste excellent local products”
“I’ll take care of it” says the owner
The rest of the righteous precedes the experience at the Enoteca Centrale of Teramo. Yes, because it was truly an experience. We walked in fully energized and made things clear right away: "We came to taste excellent local products." Said and done, the owner addressed us with a reassuring "I'll take care of it."
Even before deciding what to drink, he brought us ten glasses and had us taste 5 different wines to start with, including 2 bottles opened right in front of us: a treatment fit for gentlemen!
We opted for a Cerasuolo by Inalto, a winery owned by the De Cecco family. Honestly, that part bothered me a bit, but what a wine! And indeed we chose it.
The Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo is the typical wine that goes with everything if you have to pick a bottle for dinner.
Of course, we didn't return the other 4 glasses, which also included 3 whites! We used them to pair with our first dish: creamy tagliolini with fava beans, burrata, and crispy pancetta. What a delight.
In the glasses, there were 2 Trebbiano d'Abruzzo and a Pecorino Superiore, which stood out beautifully. Although when it comes to Pecorino wine, I always prefer the cheese! Matter of taste.
Finally, the dish that was supposed to be the appetizer arrived, after we had them bring: "pallotte cacio e ova" in sauce, paired with our Cerasuolo. Oh, I even bought that bottle; you decide.
After our glasses and the entire bottle shared between the two of us, our clarity began to wane, but not enough to forget the second dish, an incredible oven-baked lamb with artichokes. They had only one portion, which we split with a broken heart. We drank a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, one glass a head (also because at that point, a second bottle seemed too much for us...). The winery was the same as the Trebbiano from the afternoon, Terraviva: I confirm the quality of the producer, absolutely.
At this point, we thought we were done, but our host came out with a plate of aged and irresistibly flavorful pecorino cheese, paired with an excellent Abruzzese cooked wine.
"Cooked wine is an experience"
At this point, cooked like we are, like the wine, we slip off to bed, like happy children returning from the rides: the next day was going to be a tough one, indeed.
Saturday was all broadly planned; we had to be prepared, as the day promised to be demanding.
We leave early, after breakfast, to arrive at Cirelli, a farm known for being among the first to vinify in amphora. Located in Atri, right in the heart of the area protected by WWF of the Calanchi. We had never seen them before, and the wonder surprises us.
The journey from Teramo to Atri, passing through the inland hills, literally filled our hearts: a wonderful landscape, an orderly succession of hills, vineyards, olive groves, and impressive calanchi.
From Cirelli, the spectacle of fruit trees, the fig tree, the animals, everything absolutely in harmony with nature.
We quickly visit the vineyards and then head straight to the cellar, where I am personally fascinated by the cleanliness and precision and the aesthetic care of the area with the buried amphorae covered with river stones.
The table set for the tasting was disarmingly well taken care of.
We are welcomed by Francesco Cirelli's slogan on the placemat:
"While I make the wine, I imagine preparing a magic potion. An antidote to sadness, a balm for old wounds, a drink that doesn't make you forget, but forgive. An existential declaration. A message of my unconditional love."
His wines are all contained in that beautiful declaration of love: only amphora, to avoid contaminating their intentions, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Pecorino, Cerasuolo, and Montepulciano. I must say that the Trebbiano convinced me, even though it did not have the power and complexity of others I have drunk, but it had the freshness that was lacking in others.
Instead, I am perplexed by the Montepulciano, perhaps still too young and angular. I will have to drink it again in a while to remove my doubt.
After the tasting, we say goodbye and head back to Tortoreto Lido, to our friend: aren't you going to make a spaghetti with clams and have a little chat by the sea?
Afternoon dedicated to our necessary purchases at the wine shop, then rest, ready for the final battle: dinner with a tasting of 7 courses and 7 wines from Emidio Pepe!
We had been looking forward to this evening throughout the entire trip, but I could never have imagined it would be so special.
Meanwhile, when we arrived, the first surprise: we see a very elderly gentleman sitting on the patio of the house/agriturismo enjoying the view, with a serious, austere, yet serene gaze. It was indeed him, Emidio Pepe in person, 92 years old! Incredible.
Then, a great hustle and bustle of people, Emidio in excellent shape gets up, and all his family gathers around him, his children, his grandchildren. Another group of just as many people approaches, young and old. Hugs, smiles, while Emidio becomes emotional.
We ask what is happening. “You are witnessing a unique event,” we are told.
We are told the reason, who that group of people is, why there is so much happiness and emotion.
We hear about when Emidio, in his 30s, in the 60s, inherited the family business that produced and sold bulk wine, and wanted something different for his future.
Emidio was a visionary. In the 60s, an Abruzzese farming family, he founded a group called “Tre P.” Where the three Ps stand for:
"Try to Progress"
"Trying" to do something different within a family of farmers? Madness. Why change what tradition has taught us to do forever? "To progress" then, towards what?
Emidio does not give up and gets the chance to intern at a farm in the Netherlands. It was the 1960s; I repeat, because it’s embarrassing just how innovative it is.
Here he meets a family that will change his life and vision forever: a family of Dutch farmers who produced milk and at a certain point decided to transform it into cheese, selling it, thereby giving an entrepreneurial impulse to their lives.
Emidio will return profoundly changed from this experience and will convince everyone to abandon the old ways to produce and BOTTLE a quality Montepulciano for aging. Everyone thinks he’s crazy. Montepulciano? It was an everyday wine, sold in bulk.
He will continue to visit this Dutch family for the next 30 years, every year, until old age starts to hinder him.
For 20 years he does not see them. Until, indeed, the evening of our arrival, because that very evening his friends from the Netherlands, the family that changed his life forever, come to visit him, not only his, but many others who followed his example in Abruzzo in the subsequent years.
And we were right there, from Florence, on any ordinary day of our lives.
What a wonderful coincidence!
The visit to the winery that follows will be equally wonderful and magical. They explain to us their philosophy of natural, unfiltered wines, telling us about the processes. But what leaves us absolutely dazzled is the aging cellar of the old bottles! Hundreds of thousands of bottles meticulously stacked, of every vintage, from the first produced to the latest, unlabelled.
We ask why and once again the visionary nature of that man shines through: Emidio, since the first vintage, decided to bottle and immediately sell half of the production and keep the other half. For what purpose? Because occasionally he goes back and tastes the old vintages and decides when they are PERFECT (according to his taste), and then with extreme patience, he decants them one by one, refills them, re-corks them, and labels them with the original label of the same vintage! Incredible.
This is why at Pepe you can find very old vintages, still available, perfectly intact and stored meticulously, refilled, re-corked, immortal. A concept thought up in the 60s. What a visionary!
Finally, the dinner hour arrives, although, I say this sincerely, I am so captivated by everything around me, the magic, that they could have given me stale bread and well water and I would not have uttered a word. Yet the wonder was far from over.
Dinner, a triumph of quality and refinement, with always genuine ingredients sourced from within a few meters.
But the wines!!!! What were those wines??? We drank three Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, from the 2022, 2009, and 2005 vintages. Gems of freshness and complexity. We interspersed with a Pecorino 2022. And we finished with a bang: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, from the 2009, 2003, and 2000 vintages! Twenty-four years in the bottle for the 2000 which still had tannins and acidity that knocked you out. But the finesse and freshness of the 2009 will remain unmatched.
What an amazing experience! We keep repeating it during the return trip, the next day, with my friend. Abruzzo is a complex land, full of genuine people and authentic wines. And stories to tell.
