September 3, 2025 • 51 mins
The name Scacciadiavoli means “chase the devil,” referencing a story from the 14th century about a woman possessed by the Devil who was exorcised by drinking the local wine. Scacciadiavoli’s history is as storied as the wines are outstanding. In 1884 Prince Ugo Boncompani Ludovisi built the winery, inspired by the chateaux of France. Since the 1950s Scacciodiavoli has been under the stewardship of the Pambuffetti family. Liù Pambuffeti, 4th generation, discusses the history and wines.
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy bringing you our listeners thy dynamics stories about people
who are influential in the world of fine wines, spirits,
hospitality and food around the world, and we travel looking
(01:02):
for those stories to share with you. We are so
honored to have today a family member of a storied
family from Abruzzo, where we were in June of twenty
twenty three. It is such an honor to have Kiata
Pepe on our show. She is the granddaughter of a
medio peppy of a Medio Peppy Wine Estate. Amdio Peppy,
(01:26):
who is I think ninety or ninety one when we
met him and still robust, founded his company in nineteen
sixty four after working with both his father and his grandfather,
both influential who'd been making wine at the Pepe house
since eighteen ninety nine before anyone else. Emedio Peppy believed
(01:49):
in the great potential of trebiano and multi Pulciano de
Bruzzo and he dedicated his career and efforts to these
native vines, proving that they are both beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And long aging.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
In fact, these this particular winery and Medio Peppi is
considered a benchmark in the production of Montepuciano de Bruzzo
and Treviana de Bruzso it's a pioneer of biodynamic wine
making Italy and is one all sorts of awards. They
are some of the most age worthy and legendary wines
of Italy and we were honored to meet the entire family,
(02:25):
which I love. Is David now Media is the senior patriarch,
but it is really a woman run and managed winery.
Now his wife Roses involved, the aunts, the daughters and
Kiara who is the granddaughter with her sister Elisa, and
Kiera gave us a tour as to Eliza of the
seller and is very much involved in the viticultural management
(02:47):
and wine making production. She trained and did some work
in Burgundy and we joined. We actually got to sit
down and have dinner with her at their wonderful on
site dining facility and she joins us to from Abruzzo.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So Bunjiorno.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Wow, so good to be here at.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I'm excited.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Well, we're very excited to have you here. It's been
a it's been a bit to put it all together,
but we're actually really happy that you're joining us today
on the connected table. And I want to start with
talking about how the winery got started, because a media
Peppe is a very well known name in the world
of wine, especially Italian wine. It's reached legendary status around
(03:34):
the world. But it's really a family affair. You all
work the winery together. You say you have no wine
maker and that you all make the wine together. So
tell us a little bit about the history of how
your grandfather, a Medio Pepe, decided he wanted to follow
this path and start a media pepe winery.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Absolutely ran father a medio started making wine. Basically had
home with his grandfather and that's how he got to
know pretty much the basic techniques that he started his
(04:15):
career of a winemaker with. So basically together with his
grandfather that were making some wine for the family at
the bottom of their house. That's actually where we had
dinner because that was the house where my grandfather was born,
and that's turned into a restaurant with some rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
But basically he spent.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Some times as he was growing up in the farming
family in which he grew up, and when it was
at the age of thirty, in between thirty and thirty two,
he wanted a starting something of his own, and basically
(05:06):
what it was really competent in was why making, and
so he decided to start bottling the wine that were
making the house.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And he kept making wine with.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
The same techniques that it really perfectioned, and he did
a lot of trial and errors, and he was always
an incredibly good observer, was a very attentive farmer, and
he never really wanted to interfere into nature edoms or
(05:43):
unification paths that kind of had to, you know, unroll.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
On their own, and so he always.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Made wines that were very much reflecting the season and
very much reflecting the micro climate. He never wanted that
the footprint of the winemaker was so impactful onto the result.
He always wanted to give more space and voice to
(06:15):
to ar. So he started vitifying literally at the bottom
of his house, and then a little by little he
started with the vineyards that the family owned that were
about four hectors, and then little by little he first
built on aging seller before even having a production seller. Approprily,
(06:44):
and because his main tot and his gut feeling was
the one that Monte and Treviano needed time, needed to
age in order to perform in the complex way. He
had into his mind he always wanted to make an
(07:04):
elevation of refinement out of those two great varritols.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
That wasn't exactly what.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
People had in mind back then around those two great vritols.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So he wanted that you know, his wines.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Could achieve a different level of complexity, a different level
of purity, a different level of you know, sense of place,
I would say. So aging for him has always been
one of his fundamental pillars of his you know, wine
making vision. So he built an aging sailor in between
(07:45):
nineteen seventy two and nineteen seventy four. It means that
his very very first vintages he didn't sell them all because,
as Melanie he mentioned, as first vindage was nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So he didn't sell a lot of.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Those vintages initially because you wanted to hold some aside
for his aging project. So at the very first beginning,
as you can imagine, what such a small production, the
aging seller was fairly empty, and it did stay empty
for a while until he expanded.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It bought some more land, he planted summer vineyards, those
came into production, and so we go ten years later,
nineteen eighty five. It builds a production celler, and that's
the one.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That you've seen.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
When you came, and it's exactly the same we have
today with the same concrete tanks. And from then nothing
has changed very much in terms of.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
In terms of.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Style, in terms of the cultural practices, in terms of
the idea of.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Wine that we want to be delivering. It is.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
We're very attentive to making sure that you know, we
just give voice to the season, and that's why there's
very little intervention in the cellar. We just want to
be incredibly precise and attended. But then we feel the
(09:38):
responsibility that you know, nature has to do its course
and the wine has to be you know, reflecting this season,
so you know vinification and the style hasn't changed in
terms that white rapes are still crushed by feet for
(09:58):
the entire production.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Exactly has he started. And Montechel.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Gets distemmed by hand, which is a very you know,
takes a lot of time and it's a process of
its own, but that allows us to give a lot
of attention to sorting and making sure that each grape
(10:25):
is treated with delicacy and the berries remain full, so
that we allow some intracellular fermentation aside the yeast activity clearly,
and we keep respecting the idea of using concrete just
(10:47):
as grandfather started with, because we love the idea of
a containitor that is neutral and perfect oxygen fruit, so
that we can preserve and protect the energy and youth
of the wine in the very first stage of his life,
(11:12):
so that the wine then has all the energy and
power to face the aging process with no problem. And those,
as I said, it was exactly how have Grandfather started.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
And in gleading now there are many things.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
That we are working on because climate is changing, and
so there's a lot of things things that we you know,
we are dasting and we are adapting, but the main
main points are solidly going.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
To remain those.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
You know, when we visited, we were taken by the
fairly old ways and traditional ways of the hand sorting
and the and by and foot crushing my feet was
one of them. The commitment to concrete no oak, very
very there's a lot of purity in all this, I
(12:07):
think for our listeners and for everybody you talked about
and we always like to talk about at the beginning Terrooa.
Let's talk about Bruto is a fairly large region and
there's the sea and the mountains, which both have very
important aspects to how Teroai is shaped. Why don't you
(12:27):
talk about where a mediopepeti is located and what the
teroi is for the specific area and the soils as
well as climate.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
So we are in the northeast part of the region
and to the eastern part, so we are in the
corner that has two our right inside the Adriatic Sea
and to the northern border Lemake region. So as you
(13:02):
precisely said, we have mountains very close and the sea
very close, which makes it a very specific micro climate
because this formation, this precise geologic formation, allows a lot
of air circulation, a lot of wind channeling up and down,
(13:25):
and that has a huge impact on vine growing and
the aptitude of allowing vine grow grow in an area
like this in a very gradual, slow with a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Of excursion in between night and day.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
For you know, many of you probably have never been
to Bruzso and Bruzzo is in the exactly in the
center of Italy and if you look at Rome, we
are exactly on the same level, but on the other
side of the boot, so towards the Adriatic coast, and
it's a big region with a lot of mountains, and
(14:11):
it gets crossed by the Up and Nines mountain chain,
which is the chain that goes from the Alps through
the south of Italy.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
So it's the spine of our country.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
And right next to where we are, we have the
highest peak of this mountain range, and the ice peak
goes up to almost three thousand meters. It's called Gran
Sassa Mountain and it's about eighty kilometers from where we
(14:47):
are on to the west and then we go east
and it's the Adriatic Sea, which is about fifteen kilometers,
So think that in within one hundred kilometers, you go
(15:08):
from the top of the mountains three thousand meters and
you go towards the Adriatic Sea a sea level in
one hundred kilometers, and so it's quite steep if you
think at it like this and imagine that you have
from the mountains to sea level. Everything in between are
(15:29):
those beautifully shaped rolling hills in which you have a
lot of biodiversity and a lot of you know, a
lot of different cultivations, which we are particularly proud of.
You see very little monoculture in a Brunzo, and I
think this is incredibly important to farm correctly, not only vines,
(15:54):
but to farm you know, land in the best possible way.
To have interconnection in between different kind of cultures and
different kind of root systems, and the interaction that you
can have it's very powerful and very beneficial for the
entire ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So we're trying.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
To, you know, generate even more of those connections, trying
to interplant a lot of trees in between our vineyards
and to have a strong crop rotation program in with
then we try to let a lot of crop rotation.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Run around and around our vineyards, and.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
So we're trying to occupy a lot of space and
a lot of land around our vineyards onto which we
planned other cultures that you know, really enhances the biodiversity
of the landscape that surrounds the vineyard. And you know,
like if you think in terms of geology, mountains have
(16:55):
been mountains. You know, layers have been compressed one to
the other in our to you know, form the mountain chain.
And her area was back back back in the day's
million millions years ago, completely covered by sea, and when
(17:15):
the mountains came up clearly, you know, we had our
our top soil surge and a little, very little, we
had a lot of alluvial, alluviinal debris coming down and
that basically formed our soils. So as a parental material,
(17:39):
we have a lot of very very compacted clay and
you can like resemble it to.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Marl blue marl. And then on.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Top it's a lot of limestone and alluvial.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Material that has been accumulated on.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Top and has been forming those rolling hills. So it's
a very fertile land with a lot of selline compounds
and mineral compounds into the soil, which when they found
a very good combination in between rootstock and good genetics
(18:23):
of gray ritles in terms of indigenous gray ritles and
which have been you know, preserved in a very correct way,
they can really give some you know, beautiful expression of
the microclimate that has sea and maintains very close, that
(18:47):
has a good layering of top soil and parental material
that can really allow the perfect condition to you know,
to make some age war the wines that can be profound,
but also you know, have a lot of perfume, and
(19:08):
it's very interesting what Abuzzo can be delivering considering the
landscape and the microclimate that we're given.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And then clearly, you know, you.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Have a lot of different interpretection of the tar, but
I would say at the base there is an incredible
potential overall. And you know, we've always been incredibly passionate about.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Buy and growing.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
We've also been cultivating those vineyards in a very particular
method because in Abruzzo, it's one of the very few
few regions in Italy. In Michigan still find parabolas, which
is this system of training binds that develops horizontally and
(20:06):
high up, so each plant.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Goes up to two meters tall.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Opens up in four different directions, creating a canopy and
a carpet of leaves underneath, which.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Buy grapes get right.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
So that always allowed and this is definitely an interpretation
of terrar because Abruzzo it's a very windy area but
a very sunny area. So the pergola allowed a lot
of sunlight protection for the grapes that were never exposed
(20:47):
to direct sunlight and always achieved a much better quality
of tannins, which remained much more refined when none exposed
to sunlight. And at the same time, ventilation allowed to
protect grapes from you know, mildew and all sorts of
(21:08):
diseases that can occur when you know there's there's not
much ventilation. So it was the perfect combination that allowed
back in the day people from a brutto to make
wines that were you know, like much more delicate and
(21:28):
refined for you know what the region can actually be.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So I think the pert light's part.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Of what we consieter to war because it's a system
that the old people had, you know, talked in order
to interpret wine making in this region.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
You know, when we were there, I absolutely just fell
in love with that view Melanie of the grand sass
in the background from the vineyards, Kiera. You're very involved
in vineyard management. Can you give us an idea as
to how immedia Peppe farms is. It's I know you
farmed biodynamically. Tell us about the philosophy that you have quickly,
(22:11):
and then we'll talk about the wine making as well, and.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And the and and the whole aging. You have a
very unique approach to aging your wine. But do tell
us about your farming because you just want a huge award.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Thank you. I'm honored. I'm incredibly honored.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
It is something that accits me particularly and I'm I'm
very committed to it and I'm very I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I love spending time in the vineyards. I think now
more than ever we are called.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
A big responsibility, and I feel even more. I don't know,
but I've had the lack of inerita, incredibly healthy soils.
Grand father had always categorically refused to use any chemical
(23:11):
in the vineyards and in the cellar, which I have
to admit it was quite rare for the time because
back in the sixties and in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
You know, we knew so much. You know, let's say what.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
We know right now and how those are our catastrophe
to our health like as humans, but also in terms
of our environment.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So grand father always refused, and so.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Clearly, as you know, like the generation to come, we
had an incredible lack to you know, be working with
those soils that started already with an incredible potential.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And I am, you know, I always say that I'm.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
A daughter of global warming in terms that I've I've
grown up with the idea that things were changing, you know,
like I didn't see when everything was predictable and now
things are no longer predictable. I was already born in
the idea of nature being unpredictable. So I immediately took
(24:27):
this very personal and said, Okay, I have an incredible
opportunity here because because I and within an opportunity, clearly
there is a responsibility, you know, But I have land
that has never been poisoned that I can work to
(24:52):
an even higher level, that I can allow my own
little ecosystem, which is my winery and the soil. I
can work and I can close this ecosystem and I
can make it function with a different vitality and a
(25:14):
different energy.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
If I give the right.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Impulses at the right time, the resonance to which the
nature is responding back, it is multiplied. Like it is
incredible to see nature responding the way it's happening. And
the principle is fundamentally working with the tools of biodynamic
(25:44):
agriculture to enhance exchanges and microbes and roots talking and
exchanging and having the highest synergy.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Possible in between all elements.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
And it is incredible because clearly it all goes back
to the sake of making the best fruit possible in
order to make the best possible wine.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Right.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
But in within this path, I think there's so much
more we can commit in order to make the landscape
more beautiful, but also to make the vibration to which
nature works upon, you know, being more alive. And it's visible.
I just you know, so we over the past few years, we've,
(26:41):
like without being completely dogmatic, but we've gone pretty much
no healing. And I keep my soils permanently covered by i'd.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Say twenty different species of.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Herbs and hessences that I never cut, but I only
bend down in order to create constant matching and receding
of those herbs that I planned. So I tend to
have a cycle of regrowth that it's quite long, and
(27:21):
so that I can decrease my tractor passages in order
to manage my grass in a healthier way. But also,
you know, the beauty of perpolize is that you have
no problem with heights, So you can have a lot
of space occupation, but by different kind of of cultures
(27:45):
without necessarily getting in competition with roots of minds. So
the idea is to build strength over feuring when you
have a problem. So the idea is to have all
plans helping each other. And it's our responsibility to make
(28:06):
this happen as farmers, and especially when you're a young farmer,
I think you have a totally different sensitivity towards this
problem because because we see it going not exactly right,
and we understand how affected we are by the climate
being so unpredictable, that we want to recreate a sort
(28:30):
of stability, at least in within our own little ecosystem.
So I'm trying to potentially occupy as much space as possible,
which not only develops on a surface a surface area,
but develops also on a vertical space into which I
(28:52):
can develop vertically, so I can go higher up and
already you.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Know pergolas and idea of.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
You know, enhanced verticality of a vineyard, but I can
go even higher up when you think of planting trees
in within your mind, which means that I'm also going
deeper in within my soils and reaching deeper levels of
you know, humidity down into the ground, which potentially can
help the vineyards be more vocilent towards you know, heat
(29:28):
and droughts and everything that we've been seeing those days.
Composting has also been incredibly useful because it's a totally
different way of re using our own seller stuff that
(29:48):
we don't use any longer. So I normally compost all
my pressed skins, all my stems, and all my leaves
together with chopped pruning cuttings, and I mix some more
app and let it ferment, and I let it become
(30:09):
a very good organic matter, and then I, you know,
spread all around my vineyard and then it's usually.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
And fundamentally it's.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Our only way of feeding our soil. We think that
you should never buy feed for your soils or your
vineyard from outside your farm. If you're a good farmer,
you should be able to produce your own organic matter
(30:42):
in within your own farm.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
And you like this, produce.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Richness and nourishment for your own plant, and means you're
you're cultivating.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
You know, health in some soup.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
And yeah, so I've been also experimenting a lot in
terms of the sprays that we're giving. I've been experimenting
treating with unbastardized milk, for example. I think it's a
(31:18):
moment in which, as everything is changing quite rapidly as farmers,
we should change and adapting quite rapidly our farming techniques
just to make sure that what we make and what
we bottle doesn't change very much from the idea of
(31:40):
wine that we have in our mind that my family
has always been mentioned.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Let's talk about the wines, and let's step inside the cellar,
because we learned some really interesting things that are very
unique to Mediopepe. First of all, uh, there is allocation.
You you, there is a lot of allocation, and you
do something very special. You hold back a lot of
(32:08):
wine and you also reopen wine decan't and and and
retop it off. And there's a very distinct reason for
all that. So talk to us about that cellaring philosophy.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Yes, absolutely with pleasure.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
As I you know, I mentioned before, wine on the
ages in concrete for the very first part of his life.
So wine stays in concrete for the first two years,
and then the wine is never filtered. It gets bottled
in spring time, and then one big part of that wine,
(32:50):
specifically the wine that comes from our oldest experience, would
be directly going into our aging seller. So that clearly
doesn't get released before many more years until we decide.
It's really basically so when we hold up onto so
(33:13):
much wine, it means that clearly you have to organize
yourself in a totally different way. And clearly, you know
there is we are incredibly you know, lucky to have
a lot of attention and a lot of desire around
our wine.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
So we kind of have.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
To you know, choose the people that we put our
wine into their ends. So we are very attentive in
within this process. But basically, this way of sellering allows
people to get access to a a big frame of mindages.
(33:56):
So normally when we release to our to our people,
to our importers, we allow them to have access to
some of our youngest wine. Always that those that are
coming from our oldest plots, but also wines that you know,
I've been.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Aging into our cellar for twenty thirty forty years, clearly
in very very small quantities, but that's what we do.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
This is part of our philosophy and the core passing
heart of our you know, wine making idea is making
wine that should last forever. And so this idea of
timeless wines starts very much into harvest, because you have
(34:52):
to bring back in the cellar immaculate fruit and then
make sure that I have an healthy fermentation, and then
let us settle there for two years.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
And then basically.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
All the wine ages in a bottle and ages in
this and the ground seller that today counts more than
three hundred and fifty thousand bottles aging, and some of
those bottles are dating back to grandfather's first vintage. So
I'm nineteen sixty four and we arrived to you know,
(35:32):
the modern times.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
But basically we have more, you know, basically.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
Sixty sixty different vintages into our ageing cellar, so going
back to the first vintages to today, and we keep
this work going.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Because we think it's incredibly important to.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
When you want to discover a great butt ietol deeply
and when you want to discover an estate in a
very profound way.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
It's incredibly important to know what I've been the.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Past, the president in the future, and I think for
how grandfather has planned his work. It is our responsibility
that we continue to do so. So make sure that
you know, wines keeps going to the aging seller, and
that's why we can't sell at all, because we need
(36:31):
to age it.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
But if before you know grandfather.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Was so it was crazy because he was doing something
completely different from what everybody else in the region was doing.
Nowadays people are calling him Maestro for having done such
an incredible work with aging Monte Buchano. The now our
(36:56):
job is not only to keep doing what grandfather has started,
that to keep implementing and to keep investing into long
term aging much more than what it did back in
the days, because now we.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Know that it works.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Now we know that wines are you know, clearly when
they're older, incredibly more so after and it's very rare
to be able to buy a wine that has been
aging in the.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Cellar of the producer for.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Several decades and that clearly gets a premium price for
those who love older wines, for those collectors that are
you know, they love to enjoy wine that has reached
a certain level of complexity, and that's.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Through aging, and so it is it is pretty spectacular.
On top of this, as you mentioned, work correctly, every.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Bowl that it's older than twenty years old gets reconditioned
before being sold. So when we release an allocation from
one of our importers or alocate, we specifically prepare the
(38:17):
wine one by one for each one of those people.
And when we prepare those bottles that are very old,
each bottle gets reopened and poured into a new fresh
bottle that has been previously saturated with nitrogen so to
(38:39):
make the empty bottle totally oxygen free.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
And then that bottle it's the old.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Bottle, it's completely poured into the new fresh one until
we see sediments, so sediments together with.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
The old bottle that get discarded.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
The new bottle it's topped off with a second bottle
of the same thing. Bitch and then quirked and on
the quark, really it's a brand new quirk And on
the cork we write the year of the the condition
so that people know when they're opening a bottle of
the media paper that has twenty plus years old when
(39:19):
the bottle is being reconditioned and chucked at the estate.
Just by looking at the year that is written on.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
The quirk, it's so interesting and it's it's it's very regimented,
you know, it's a it's a first of all, for
a listener, it's amazed down there. It's a maze of bottles.
And the fact this you think about how labor intensive
it is to reopen the bottle and then rebottle it
(39:47):
and date it. And you do this the wines are tasted.
In my notes, this says every January, and then you
prepare a release list to offered importers who or you
open up a cellar in April.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So it's very specific.
Speaker 7 (40:02):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's the work we do needs
a lot of strategic logistics in order to make your
run properly, and I think has to.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Be very organized so.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
That we can also organize and plan it will work
and make it precise and do it at the right
time in the favor of the wine and in the
favor of shipping, temperature, travels and so on.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
So I think has.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
To be very organized in order to, you know, have
it run correctly.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah, I have to say it is quite meticulous and.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Precise in terms of the whole work we do from
the beginning to the end.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
It's pretty fascinating, I must say. I mean, I think
you're out of the room at this point. But Kiara's
sister gave a couple of us, say a little bit
of insight as to how they go about monitoring the
monitoring the wine that goes out of the winery. They
have a authentication process that they go through that so
that they can prove and that a person who may
buy it at a auction or something like that can
(41:08):
prove that it actually came from the winery. And I
thought that was a pretty fascinating part as well.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
So it's fascinating that the process. Let's talk a little
bit about your family.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
You work with your.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Aunt and your mother, and your grandfather is in his nineties,
but it's all women first. Is there anything you could
share with us that your grandfather has shared with you
of words of wisdom that have inspired you?
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Wow? Many many grandfather has been doesn't talk a lot.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And you sorrly never did, but he was always very
careful in making sure he was trustmitting correctly as passion
before he.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Ever or we ever felt it as.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
A need to take over or our need to be
part of the winery. He was always incredibly gentle in
making us part of the whole game because he wanted
us to love it before anything else.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
It was exactly like that.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
He allowed us to have a lot of freedom to
travel around the world to study different things. This is
also the reason why nobody in the family has studied
in ology, because it was exactly like that. He always
said that all the anological knowledge in the family should
stay in the family, but had to be transmitted through
(42:49):
tradition and never by technology or overly science things, because
it is a work of observation and understanding and sensitivity
before anything else.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
So it was always very careful in letting us pay
attention to those little details.
Speaker 8 (43:09):
That should never you know, should never be disregarded, because
dream was exactly the base of everything that he did.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
He was always paying a lot of attention.
Speaker 4 (43:23):
To his taste and to tasting wine correctly and making
sure you know, the wines were talking to him before
you know, any other.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Criteria that was.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Moving away from the soulful idea of wine that has
been passing on through generation to our family. And as
you said, it is indeed a work of women, because
the wine really well. Grandfather started the process with the
(44:01):
one and only grandmother, which clearly massively supported his work
and his ideas, which back in the days were crazy ideas.
So she was always very motivated next to him, supporting
him at all posts.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
And then the.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
Onery passed on onto the second generation, which is my
mom and my aunt which today on the winery.
Speaker 9 (44:29):
And Sophia, my aunt, she was the winemaker before me,
and so she learned from grandfather and she's been making
mine since the early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
And my mom's now.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
Today in charge of all the administration part and the
business side. And then it's the third generation again for
now a lot of women.
Speaker 3 (44:59):
It's my it's me and my sister.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
And hopefully my brother will come along in a couple
of years. And Sophia she has a boy and a
girl which also hopefully will come along. For now, it's yeah,
me and my sister actively working at the estate. Me
being in charge of more of the technical aspects of farming,
(45:22):
wine growing and celler management, and my sister being in
charge of all the hospitality.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
So she does everything that.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
Has to deal with the welcoming collectors from all around
the globe, but also making sure that we have a
beautiful biodonamic garden and everything has been carefully prepared with
the same attention and idea that we have within wine
making is basically being reflected into the cellar, Sorry not
(45:57):
into the cellar, but into the kitchen where Chef Beedro
really interprets everything with an incredible, incredible delicacy that it
stopt to be pairing our wines.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
In the best possible way.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
So it is, yeah, definitely a family affair and definitely
a woman affair. But you know, grandfather has always been
a very strong male presence that really it's very complicated
for other male cresses to you know, be along, and
so I think having the plomacy of women around him
(46:36):
was definitely a very important key of interpretation to his work.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Speaking of women, I think we want to acknowledge another
woman that was important in his life opening the United
States market to him, and that is Lydia Barsionitch, which
was underscore we were there, Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Indeed, Lydia.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Lydia was one of the first first supporters of grandfather's
work and wine, and she started buying the wines before
for her perhaps a personal conception before even you know,
letting some of the wines good in the rations and and.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
You know there's a few friends nowadays.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
The very first auctions that we did in New York,
grandfather was like, okay, now we go and tell Lydia
that the wines are going to auction. So they you know,
they always kept this connection very alive. And now you know,
I'm often with with Joe at some of the ratans
(47:38):
all around the globe, and it's it's pretty spectacular to
to see, you know, generation keep it, keep working on
the same side, and you know those friends sheets staying
alive generation after generation.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
It's it's really an inspiring story. I just want to
We have about a minute or so left. We had
a wonderful meal. We sat actually sat at our table.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
I have to.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Underscore the food was phenomenal. It was one of the
best meals we had in a Bruzso to be honest,
we had a number of ones. We had the Montepulciano
de Bruzzo. We had a two thousand and three, which
is a warmer vintage. It was just beautiful wine. And
then we had a cooler vintage was of the two
thousand and nine and uh, then we had a Trebiano
(48:29):
de Bruzzo two thousand and seven and a twenty twenty
and they paired beautifully. It was interesting to see that
how the different vintages played out because of the you know,
obviously they were very different years.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
We also got to taste the little bit of.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Peccerino that you do, which was the wonderful. It was
reminded me of Cama mill saffron and honey as we're
in my notes.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
That's a very good description, that's a very good combo.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Indeed, Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 4 (48:57):
It's true that the kitchen pairs beautifully.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
And clearly you know, we're we only.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Open April through October because that's the season where you.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Know, clearly there you know, the.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
Line offers us a lot of incredible fruit and veggies
that we can.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Pay along and that. But yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
That's definitely an invite to come and see us in
Abruzzo anytime.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Absolutely, And we just want to let our listeners know
that the US importer for anyone in the industry who's
curious is Pollinar selections correct.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Indeed, indeed that's in New York and New Jersey, and
then for.
Speaker 4 (49:45):
Every other state, we have all different importers in order,
as you mentioned before, to manage our location precisely. We
have one direct importer for each state.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Okay, So the medio Peppy wines are availed the United States,
and of course we encourage you to visit a Bruto
and schedule a visit to Medio Pepe when they're open,
because it is an extraordinary place, gorgeous view, beautiful property,
and the wines are stellar, stellar, and as we said,
their commitment, your commitment to time monitored techniques and production
(50:20):
and agriculture and long aging show very well in the glass.
Kiata Peppe, thank you for joining us today on the
Connected Table Live.
Speaker 4 (50:30):
Thank you Melanie and David. It was awesome an honor.
Thank you for having me well.
Speaker 5 (50:35):
It was our pleasure as well, and we can't wait
to come back and visit you at another time in
a Brusou and visit the winery again.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Please pleasure. I'll be here. You know where to find
me now.
Speaker 2 (50:46):
Absolutely so for all of you listening, we hope you've
enjoyed another episode of The Connected Table live where we
take you to a beautiful region that we have visited.
We encourage you to always travel, explore, expand your palate,
and stay insatiably curious.
Speaker 3 (51:05):
Thank you,
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy bringing you our listeners thy dynamics stories about people
who are influential in the world of fine wines, spirits,
hospitality and food around the world, and we travel looking
(01:02):
for those stories to share with you. We are so
honored to have today a family member of a storied
family from Abruzzo, where we were in June of twenty
twenty three. It is such an honor to have Kiata
Pepe on our show. She is the granddaughter of a
medio peppy of a Medio Peppy Wine Estate. Amdio Peppy,
(01:26):
who is I think ninety or ninety one when we
met him and still robust, founded his company in nineteen
sixty four after working with both his father and his grandfather,
both influential who'd been making wine at the Pepe house
since eighteen ninety nine before anyone else. Emedio Peppy believed
(01:49):
in the great potential of trebiano and multi Pulciano de
Bruzzo and he dedicated his career and efforts to these
native vines, proving that they are both beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And long aging.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
In fact, these this particular winery and Medio Peppi is
considered a benchmark in the production of Montepuciano de Bruzzo
and Treviana de Bruzso it's a pioneer of biodynamic wine
making Italy and is one all sorts of awards. They
are some of the most age worthy and legendary wines
of Italy and we were honored to meet the entire family,
(02:25):
which I love. Is David now Media is the senior patriarch,
but it is really a woman run and managed winery.
Now his wife Roses involved, the aunts, the daughters and
Kiara who is the granddaughter with her sister Elisa, and
Kiera gave us a tour as to Eliza of the
seller and is very much involved in the viticultural management
(02:47):
and wine making production. She trained and did some work
in Burgundy and we joined. We actually got to sit
down and have dinner with her at their wonderful on
site dining facility and she joins us to from Abruzzo.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So Bunjiorno.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Wow, so good to be here at.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I'm excited.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Well, we're very excited to have you here. It's been
a it's been a bit to put it all together,
but we're actually really happy that you're joining us today
on the connected table. And I want to start with
talking about how the winery got started, because a media
Peppe is a very well known name in the world
of wine, especially Italian wine. It's reached legendary status around
(03:34):
the world. But it's really a family affair. You all
work the winery together. You say you have no wine
maker and that you all make the wine together. So
tell us a little bit about the history of how
your grandfather, a Medio Pepe, decided he wanted to follow
this path and start a media pepe winery.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Absolutely ran father a medio started making wine. Basically had
home with his grandfather and that's how he got to
know pretty much the basic techniques that he started his
(04:15):
career of a winemaker with. So basically together with his
grandfather that were making some wine for the family at
the bottom of their house. That's actually where we had
dinner because that was the house where my grandfather was born,
and that's turned into a restaurant with some rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
But basically he spent.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Some times as he was growing up in the farming
family in which he grew up, and when it was
at the age of thirty, in between thirty and thirty two,
he wanted a starting something of his own, and basically
(05:06):
what it was really competent in was why making, and
so he decided to start bottling the wine that were
making the house.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And he kept making wine with.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
The same techniques that it really perfectioned, and he did
a lot of trial and errors, and he was always
an incredibly good observer, was a very attentive farmer, and
he never really wanted to interfere into nature edoms or
(05:43):
unification paths that kind of had to, you know, unroll.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
On their own, and so he always.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Made wines that were very much reflecting the season and
very much reflecting the micro climate. He never wanted that
the footprint of the winemaker was so impactful onto the result.
He always wanted to give more space and voice to
(06:15):
to ar. So he started vitifying literally at the bottom
of his house, and then a little by little he
started with the vineyards that the family owned that were
about four hectors, and then little by little he first
built on aging seller before even having a production seller. Approprily,
(06:44):
and because his main tot and his gut feeling was
the one that Monte and Treviano needed time, needed to
age in order to perform in the complex way. He
had into his mind he always wanted to make an
(07:04):
elevation of refinement out of those two great varritols.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
That wasn't exactly what.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
People had in mind back then around those two great vritols.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So he wanted that you know, his wines.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Could achieve a different level of complexity, a different level
of purity, a different level of you know, sense of place,
I would say. So aging for him has always been
one of his fundamental pillars of his you know, wine
making vision. So he built an aging sailor in between
(07:45):
nineteen seventy two and nineteen seventy four. It means that
his very very first vintages he didn't sell them all because,
as Melanie he mentioned, as first vindage was nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So he didn't sell a lot of.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Those vintages initially because you wanted to hold some aside
for his aging project. So at the very first beginning,
as you can imagine, what such a small production, the
aging seller was fairly empty, and it did stay empty
for a while until he expanded.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It bought some more land, he planted summer vineyards, those
came into production, and so we go ten years later,
nineteen eighty five. It builds a production celler, and that's
the one.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That you've seen.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
When you came, and it's exactly the same we have
today with the same concrete tanks. And from then nothing
has changed very much in terms of.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
In terms of.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Style, in terms of the cultural practices, in terms of
the idea of.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Wine that we want to be delivering. It is.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
We're very attentive to making sure that you know, we
just give voice to the season, and that's why there's
very little intervention in the cellar. We just want to
be incredibly precise and attended. But then we feel the
(09:38):
responsibility that you know, nature has to do its course
and the wine has to be you know, reflecting this season,
so you know vinification and the style hasn't changed in
terms that white rapes are still crushed by feet for
(09:58):
the entire production.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Exactly has he started. And Montechel.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Gets distemmed by hand, which is a very you know,
takes a lot of time and it's a process of
its own, but that allows us to give a lot
of attention to sorting and making sure that each grape
(10:25):
is treated with delicacy and the berries remain full, so
that we allow some intracellular fermentation aside the yeast activity clearly,
and we keep respecting the idea of using concrete just
(10:47):
as grandfather started with, because we love the idea of
a containitor that is neutral and perfect oxygen fruit, so
that we can preserve and protect the energy and youth
of the wine in the very first stage of his life,
(11:12):
so that the wine then has all the energy and
power to face the aging process with no problem. And those,
as I said, it was exactly how have Grandfather started.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
And in gleading now there are many things.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
That we are working on because climate is changing, and
so there's a lot of things things that we you know,
we are dasting and we are adapting, but the main
main points are solidly going.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
To remain those.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
You know, when we visited, we were taken by the
fairly old ways and traditional ways of the hand sorting
and the and by and foot crushing my feet was
one of them. The commitment to concrete no oak, very
very there's a lot of purity in all this, I
(12:07):
think for our listeners and for everybody you talked about
and we always like to talk about at the beginning Terrooa.
Let's talk about Bruto is a fairly large region and
there's the sea and the mountains, which both have very
important aspects to how Teroai is shaped. Why don't you
(12:27):
talk about where a mediopepeti is located and what the
teroi is for the specific area and the soils as
well as climate.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
So we are in the northeast part of the region
and to the eastern part, so we are in the
corner that has two our right inside the Adriatic Sea
and to the northern border Lemake region. So as you
(13:02):
precisely said, we have mountains very close and the sea
very close, which makes it a very specific micro climate
because this formation, this precise geologic formation, allows a lot
of air circulation, a lot of wind channeling up and down,
(13:25):
and that has a huge impact on vine growing and
the aptitude of allowing vine grow grow in an area
like this in a very gradual, slow with a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Of excursion in between night and day.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
For you know, many of you probably have never been
to Bruzso and Bruzzo is in the exactly in the
center of Italy and if you look at Rome, we
are exactly on the same level, but on the other
side of the boot, so towards the Adriatic coast, and
it's a big region with a lot of mountains, and
(14:11):
it gets crossed by the Up and Nines mountain chain,
which is the chain that goes from the Alps through
the south of Italy.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
So it's the spine of our country.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
And right next to where we are, we have the
highest peak of this mountain range, and the ice peak
goes up to almost three thousand meters. It's called Gran
Sassa Mountain and it's about eighty kilometers from where we
(14:47):
are on to the west and then we go east
and it's the Adriatic Sea, which is about fifteen kilometers,
So think that in within one hundred kilometers, you go
(15:08):
from the top of the mountains three thousand meters and
you go towards the Adriatic Sea a sea level in
one hundred kilometers, and so it's quite steep if you
think at it like this and imagine that you have
from the mountains to sea level. Everything in between are
(15:29):
those beautifully shaped rolling hills in which you have a
lot of biodiversity and a lot of you know, a
lot of different cultivations, which we are particularly proud of.
You see very little monoculture in a Brunzo, and I
think this is incredibly important to farm correctly, not only vines,
(15:54):
but to farm you know, land in the best possible way.
To have interconnection in between different kind of cultures and
different kind of root systems, and the interaction that you
can have it's very powerful and very beneficial for the
entire ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So we're trying.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
To, you know, generate even more of those connections, trying
to interplant a lot of trees in between our vineyards
and to have a strong crop rotation program in with
then we try to let a lot of crop rotation.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Run around and around our vineyards, and.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
So we're trying to occupy a lot of space and
a lot of land around our vineyards onto which we
planned other cultures that you know, really enhances the biodiversity
of the landscape that surrounds the vineyard. And you know,
like if you think in terms of geology, mountains have
(16:55):
been mountains. You know, layers have been compressed one to
the other in our to you know, form the mountain chain.
And her area was back back back in the day's
million millions years ago, completely covered by sea, and when
(17:15):
the mountains came up clearly, you know, we had our
our top soil surge and a little, very little, we
had a lot of alluvial, alluviinal debris coming down and
that basically formed our soils. So as a parental material,
(17:39):
we have a lot of very very compacted clay and
you can like resemble it to.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Marl blue marl. And then on.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Top it's a lot of limestone and alluvial.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Material that has been accumulated on.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Top and has been forming those rolling hills. So it's
a very fertile land with a lot of selline compounds
and mineral compounds into the soil, which when they found
a very good combination in between rootstock and good genetics
(18:23):
of gray ritles in terms of indigenous gray ritles and
which have been you know, preserved in a very correct way,
they can really give some you know, beautiful expression of
the microclimate that has sea and maintains very close, that
(18:47):
has a good layering of top soil and parental material
that can really allow the perfect condition to you know,
to make some age war the wines that can be profound,
but also you know, have a lot of perfume, and
(19:08):
it's very interesting what Abuzzo can be delivering considering the
landscape and the microclimate that we're given.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And then clearly, you know, you.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Have a lot of different interpretection of the tar, but
I would say at the base there is an incredible
potential overall. And you know, we've always been incredibly passionate about.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Buy and growing.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
We've also been cultivating those vineyards in a very particular
method because in Abruzzo, it's one of the very few
few regions in Italy. In Michigan still find parabolas, which
is this system of training binds that develops horizontally and
(20:06):
high up, so each plant.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Goes up to two meters tall.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Opens up in four different directions, creating a canopy and
a carpet of leaves underneath, which.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Buy grapes get right.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
So that always allowed and this is definitely an interpretation
of terrar because Abruzzo it's a very windy area but
a very sunny area. So the pergola allowed a lot
of sunlight protection for the grapes that were never exposed
(20:47):
to direct sunlight and always achieved a much better quality
of tannins, which remained much more refined when none exposed
to sunlight. And at the same time, ventilation allowed to
protect grapes from you know, mildew and all sorts of
(21:08):
diseases that can occur when you know there's there's not
much ventilation. So it was the perfect combination that allowed
back in the day people from a brutto to make
wines that were you know, like much more delicate and
(21:28):
refined for you know what the region can actually be.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So I think the pert light's part.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Of what we consieter to war because it's a system
that the old people had, you know, talked in order
to interpret wine making in this region.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
You know, when we were there, I absolutely just fell
in love with that view Melanie of the grand sass
in the background from the vineyards, Kiera. You're very involved
in vineyard management. Can you give us an idea as
to how immedia Peppe farms is. It's I know you
farmed biodynamically. Tell us about the philosophy that you have quickly,
(22:11):
and then we'll talk about the wine making as well, and.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And the and and the whole aging. You have a
very unique approach to aging your wine. But do tell
us about your farming because you just want a huge award.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Thank you. I'm honored. I'm incredibly honored.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
It is something that accits me particularly and I'm I'm
very committed to it and I'm very I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I love spending time in the vineyards. I think now
more than ever we are called.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
A big responsibility, and I feel even more. I don't know,
but I've had the lack of inerita, incredibly healthy soils.
Grand father had always categorically refused to use any chemical
(23:11):
in the vineyards and in the cellar, which I have
to admit it was quite rare for the time because
back in the sixties and in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
You know, we knew so much. You know, let's say what.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
We know right now and how those are our catastrophe
to our health like as humans, but also in terms
of our environment.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So grand father always refused, and so.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Clearly, as you know, like the generation to come, we
had an incredible lack to you know, be working with
those soils that started already with an incredible potential.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And I am, you know, I always say that I'm.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
A daughter of global warming in terms that I've I've
grown up with the idea that things were changing, you know,
like I didn't see when everything was predictable and now
things are no longer predictable. I was already born in
the idea of nature being unpredictable. So I immediately took
(24:27):
this very personal and said, Okay, I have an incredible
opportunity here because because I and within an opportunity, clearly
there is a responsibility, you know, But I have land
that has never been poisoned that I can work to
(24:52):
an even higher level, that I can allow my own
little ecosystem, which is my winery and the soil. I
can work and I can close this ecosystem and I
can make it function with a different vitality and a
(25:14):
different energy.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
If I give the right.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Impulses at the right time, the resonance to which the
nature is responding back, it is multiplied. Like it is
incredible to see nature responding the way it's happening. And
the principle is fundamentally working with the tools of biodynamic
(25:44):
agriculture to enhance exchanges and microbes and roots talking and
exchanging and having the highest synergy.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Possible in between all elements.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
And it is incredible because clearly it all goes back
to the sake of making the best fruit possible in
order to make the best possible wine.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Right.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
But in within this path, I think there's so much
more we can commit in order to make the landscape
more beautiful, but also to make the vibration to which
nature works upon, you know, being more alive. And it's visible.
I just you know, so we over the past few years, we've,
(26:41):
like without being completely dogmatic, but we've gone pretty much
no healing. And I keep my soils permanently covered by i'd.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Say twenty different species of.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Herbs and hessences that I never cut, but I only
bend down in order to create constant matching and receding
of those herbs that I planned. So I tend to
have a cycle of regrowth that it's quite long, and
(27:21):
so that I can decrease my tractor passages in order
to manage my grass in a healthier way. But also,
you know, the beauty of perpolize is that you have
no problem with heights, So you can have a lot
of space occupation, but by different kind of of cultures
(27:45):
without necessarily getting in competition with roots of minds. So
the idea is to build strength over feuring when you
have a problem. So the idea is to have all
plans helping each other. And it's our responsibility to make
(28:06):
this happen as farmers, and especially when you're a young farmer,
I think you have a totally different sensitivity towards this
problem because because we see it going not exactly right,
and we understand how affected we are by the climate
being so unpredictable, that we want to recreate a sort
(28:30):
of stability, at least in within our own little ecosystem.
So I'm trying to potentially occupy as much space as possible,
which not only develops on a surface a surface area,
but develops also on a vertical space into which I
(28:52):
can develop vertically, so I can go higher up and
already you.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Know pergolas and idea of.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
You know, enhanced verticality of a vineyard, but I can
go even higher up when you think of planting trees
in within your mind, which means that I'm also going
deeper in within my soils and reaching deeper levels of
you know, humidity down into the ground, which potentially can
help the vineyards be more vocilent towards you know, heat
(29:28):
and droughts and everything that we've been seeing those days.
Composting has also been incredibly useful because it's a totally
different way of re using our own seller stuff that
(29:48):
we don't use any longer. So I normally compost all
my pressed skins, all my stems, and all my leaves
together with chopped pruning cuttings, and I mix some more
app and let it ferment, and I let it become
(30:09):
a very good organic matter, and then I, you know,
spread all around my vineyard and then it's usually.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
And fundamentally it's.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Our only way of feeding our soil. We think that
you should never buy feed for your soils or your
vineyard from outside your farm. If you're a good farmer,
you should be able to produce your own organic matter
(30:42):
in within your own farm.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
And you like this, produce.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Richness and nourishment for your own plant, and means you're
you're cultivating.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
You know, health in some soup.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
And yeah, so I've been also experimenting a lot in
terms of the sprays that we're giving. I've been experimenting
treating with unbastardized milk, for example. I think it's a
(31:18):
moment in which, as everything is changing quite rapidly as farmers,
we should change and adapting quite rapidly our farming techniques
just to make sure that what we make and what
we bottle doesn't change very much from the idea of
(31:40):
wine that we have in our mind that my family
has always been mentioned.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Let's talk about the wines, and let's step inside the cellar,
because we learned some really interesting things that are very
unique to Mediopepe. First of all, uh, there is allocation.
You you, there is a lot of allocation, and you
do something very special. You hold back a lot of
(32:08):
wine and you also reopen wine decan't and and and
retop it off. And there's a very distinct reason for
all that. So talk to us about that cellaring philosophy.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Yes, absolutely with pleasure.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
As I you know, I mentioned before, wine on the
ages in concrete for the very first part of his life.
So wine stays in concrete for the first two years,
and then the wine is never filtered. It gets bottled
in spring time, and then one big part of that wine,
(32:50):
specifically the wine that comes from our oldest experience, would
be directly going into our aging seller. So that clearly
doesn't get released before many more years until we decide.
It's really basically so when we hold up onto so
(33:13):
much wine, it means that clearly you have to organize
yourself in a totally different way. And clearly, you know
there is we are incredibly you know, lucky to have
a lot of attention and a lot of desire around
our wine.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
So we kind of have.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
To you know, choose the people that we put our
wine into their ends. So we are very attentive in
within this process. But basically, this way of sellering allows
people to get access to a a big frame of mindages.
(33:56):
So normally when we release to our to our people,
to our importers, we allow them to have access to
some of our youngest wine. Always that those that are
coming from our oldest plots, but also wines that you know,
I've been.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Aging into our cellar for twenty thirty forty years, clearly
in very very small quantities, but that's what we do.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
This is part of our philosophy and the core passing
heart of our you know, wine making idea is making
wine that should last forever. And so this idea of
timeless wines starts very much into harvest, because you have
(34:52):
to bring back in the cellar immaculate fruit and then
make sure that I have an healthy fermentation, and then
let us settle there for two years.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
And then basically.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
All the wine ages in a bottle and ages in
this and the ground seller that today counts more than
three hundred and fifty thousand bottles aging, and some of
those bottles are dating back to grandfather's first vintage. So
I'm nineteen sixty four and we arrived to you know,
(35:32):
the modern times.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
But basically we have more, you know, basically.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
Sixty sixty different vintages into our ageing cellar, so going
back to the first vintages to today, and we keep
this work going.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Because we think it's incredibly important to.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
When you want to discover a great butt ietol deeply
and when you want to discover an estate in a
very profound way.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
It's incredibly important to know what I've been the.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Past, the president in the future, and I think for
how grandfather has planned his work. It is our responsibility
that we continue to do so. So make sure that
you know, wines keeps going to the aging seller, and
that's why we can't sell at all, because we need
(36:31):
to age it.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
But if before you know grandfather.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Was so it was crazy because he was doing something
completely different from what everybody else in the region was doing.
Nowadays people are calling him Maestro for having done such
an incredible work with aging Monte Buchano. The now our
(36:56):
job is not only to keep doing what grandfather has started,
that to keep implementing and to keep investing into long
term aging much more than what it did back in
the days, because now we.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Know that it works.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Now we know that wines are you know, clearly when
they're older, incredibly more so after and it's very rare
to be able to buy a wine that has been
aging in the.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Cellar of the producer for.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Several decades and that clearly gets a premium price for
those who love older wines, for those collectors that are
you know, they love to enjoy wine that has reached
a certain level of complexity, and that's.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Through aging, and so it is it is pretty spectacular.
On top of this, as you mentioned, work correctly, every.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Bowl that it's older than twenty years old gets reconditioned
before being sold. So when we release an allocation from
one of our importers or alocate, we specifically prepare the
(38:17):
wine one by one for each one of those people.
And when we prepare those bottles that are very old,
each bottle gets reopened and poured into a new fresh
bottle that has been previously saturated with nitrogen so to
(38:39):
make the empty bottle totally oxygen free.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
And then that bottle it's the old.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Bottle, it's completely poured into the new fresh one until
we see sediments, so sediments together with.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
The old bottle that get discarded.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
The new bottle it's topped off with a second bottle
of the same thing. Bitch and then quirked and on
the quark, really it's a brand new quirk And on
the cork we write the year of the the condition
so that people know when they're opening a bottle of
the media paper that has twenty plus years old when
(39:19):
the bottle is being reconditioned and chucked at the estate.
Just by looking at the year that is written on.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
The quirk, it's so interesting and it's it's it's very regimented,
you know, it's a it's a first of all, for
a listener, it's amazed down there. It's a maze of bottles.
And the fact this you think about how labor intensive
it is to reopen the bottle and then rebottle it
(39:47):
and date it. And you do this the wines are tasted.
In my notes, this says every January, and then you
prepare a release list to offered importers who or you
open up a cellar in April.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So it's very specific.
Speaker 7 (40:02):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's the work we do needs
a lot of strategic logistics in order to make your
run properly, and I think has to.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Be very organized so.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
That we can also organize and plan it will work
and make it precise and do it at the right
time in the favor of the wine and in the
favor of shipping, temperature, travels and so on.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
So I think has.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
To be very organized in order to, you know, have
it run correctly.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah, I have to say it is quite meticulous and.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Precise in terms of the whole work we do from
the beginning to the end.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
It's pretty fascinating, I must say. I mean, I think
you're out of the room at this point. But Kiara's
sister gave a couple of us, say a little bit
of insight as to how they go about monitoring the
monitoring the wine that goes out of the winery. They
have a authentication process that they go through that so
that they can prove and that a person who may
buy it at a auction or something like that can
(41:08):
prove that it actually came from the winery. And I
thought that was a pretty fascinating part as well.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
So it's fascinating that the process. Let's talk a little
bit about your family.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
You work with your.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Aunt and your mother, and your grandfather is in his nineties,
but it's all women first. Is there anything you could
share with us that your grandfather has shared with you
of words of wisdom that have inspired you?
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Wow? Many many grandfather has been doesn't talk a lot.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And you sorrly never did, but he was always very
careful in making sure he was trustmitting correctly as passion
before he.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Ever or we ever felt it as.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
A need to take over or our need to be
part of the winery. He was always incredibly gentle in
making us part of the whole game because he wanted
us to love it before anything else.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
It was exactly like that.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
He allowed us to have a lot of freedom to
travel around the world to study different things. This is
also the reason why nobody in the family has studied
in ology, because it was exactly like that. He always
said that all the anological knowledge in the family should
stay in the family, but had to be transmitted through
(42:49):
tradition and never by technology or overly science things, because
it is a work of observation and understanding and sensitivity
before anything else.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
So it was always very careful in letting us pay
attention to those little details.
Speaker 8 (43:09):
That should never you know, should never be disregarded, because
dream was exactly the base of everything that he did.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
He was always paying a lot of attention.
Speaker 4 (43:23):
To his taste and to tasting wine correctly and making
sure you know, the wines were talking to him before
you know, any other.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Criteria that was.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Moving away from the soulful idea of wine that has
been passing on through generation to our family. And as
you said, it is indeed a work of women, because
the wine really well. Grandfather started the process with the
(44:01):
one and only grandmother, which clearly massively supported his work
and his ideas, which back in the days were crazy ideas.
So she was always very motivated next to him, supporting
him at all posts.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
And then the.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
Onery passed on onto the second generation, which is my
mom and my aunt which today on the winery.
Speaker 9 (44:29):
And Sophia, my aunt, she was the winemaker before me,
and so she learned from grandfather and she's been making
mine since the early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
And my mom's now.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
Today in charge of all the administration part and the
business side. And then it's the third generation again for
now a lot of women.
Speaker 3 (44:59):
It's my it's me and my sister.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
And hopefully my brother will come along in a couple
of years. And Sophia she has a boy and a
girl which also hopefully will come along. For now, it's yeah,
me and my sister actively working at the estate. Me
being in charge of more of the technical aspects of farming,
(45:22):
wine growing and celler management, and my sister being in
charge of all the hospitality.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
So she does everything that.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
Has to deal with the welcoming collectors from all around
the globe, but also making sure that we have a
beautiful biodonamic garden and everything has been carefully prepared with
the same attention and idea that we have within wine
making is basically being reflected into the cellar, Sorry not
(45:57):
into the cellar, but into the kitchen where Chef Beedro
really interprets everything with an incredible, incredible delicacy that it
stopt to be pairing our wines.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
In the best possible way.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
So it is, yeah, definitely a family affair and definitely
a woman affair. But you know, grandfather has always been
a very strong male presence that really it's very complicated
for other male cresses to you know, be along, and
so I think having the plomacy of women around him
(46:36):
was definitely a very important key of interpretation to his work.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Speaking of women, I think we want to acknowledge another
woman that was important in his life opening the United
States market to him, and that is Lydia Barsionitch, which
was underscore we were there, Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Indeed, Lydia.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Lydia was one of the first first supporters of grandfather's
work and wine, and she started buying the wines before
for her perhaps a personal conception before even you know,
letting some of the wines good in the rations and and.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
You know there's a few friends nowadays.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
The very first auctions that we did in New York,
grandfather was like, okay, now we go and tell Lydia
that the wines are going to auction. So they you know,
they always kept this connection very alive. And now you know,
I'm often with with Joe at some of the ratans
(47:38):
all around the globe, and it's it's pretty spectacular to
to see, you know, generation keep it, keep working on
the same side, and you know those friends sheets staying
alive generation after generation.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
It's it's really an inspiring story. I just want to
We have about a minute or so left. We had
a wonderful meal. We sat actually sat at our table.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
I have to.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Underscore the food was phenomenal. It was one of the
best meals we had in a Bruzso to be honest,
we had a number of ones. We had the Montepulciano
de Bruzzo. We had a two thousand and three, which
is a warmer vintage. It was just beautiful wine. And
then we had a cooler vintage was of the two
thousand and nine and uh, then we had a Trebiano
(48:29):
de Bruzzo two thousand and seven and a twenty twenty
and they paired beautifully. It was interesting to see that
how the different vintages played out because of the you know,
obviously they were very different years.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
We also got to taste the little bit of.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Peccerino that you do, which was the wonderful. It was
reminded me of Cama mill saffron and honey as we're
in my notes.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
That's a very good description, that's a very good combo.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Indeed, Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 4 (48:57):
It's true that the kitchen pairs beautifully.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
And clearly you know, we're we only.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Open April through October because that's the season where you.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Know, clearly there you know, the.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
Line offers us a lot of incredible fruit and veggies
that we can.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Pay along and that. But yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
That's definitely an invite to come and see us in
Abruzzo anytime.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Absolutely, And we just want to let our listeners know
that the US importer for anyone in the industry who's
curious is Pollinar selections correct.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Indeed, indeed that's in New York and New Jersey, and
then for.
Speaker 4 (49:45):
Every other state, we have all different importers in order,
as you mentioned before, to manage our location precisely. We
have one direct importer for each state.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Okay, So the medio Peppy wines are availed the United States,
and of course we encourage you to visit a Bruto
and schedule a visit to Medio Pepe when they're open,
because it is an extraordinary place, gorgeous view, beautiful property,
and the wines are stellar, stellar, and as we said,
their commitment, your commitment to time monitored techniques and production
(50:20):
and agriculture and long aging show very well in the glass.
Kiata Peppe, thank you for joining us today on the
Connected Table Live.
Speaker 4 (50:30):
Thank you Melanie and David. It was awesome an honor.
Thank you for having me well.
Speaker 5 (50:35):
It was our pleasure as well, and we can't wait
to come back and visit you at another time in
a Brusou and visit the winery again.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Please pleasure. I'll be here. You know where to find
me now.
Speaker 2 (50:46):
Absolutely so for all of you listening, we hope you've
enjoyed another episode of The Connected Table live where we
take you to a beautiful region that we have visited.
We encourage you to always travel, explore, expand your palate,
and stay insatiably curious.
Speaker 3 (51:05):
Thank you,
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