One of the most compelling and thought-provoking visits of my year so far was my stop at Emidio Pepe in northern Abruzzo in February.

Chiara Pepe, the current generation of this legendary wine family, is now vineyard manager and winemaker. Her embrace of her family’s literally epic viticultural legacy would be a subject for a book. Those are no small shoes to fill.

But it was her philosophical reflections that were so captivating that day. That’s her in the vineyards checking in with the workers who are about to begin pruning. Note the moka coffeemaker on the portable stove.

She talked at length about how vineyard managers tend to focus solely on phototropism, the reaction of plants and animals to light. Geotropism, she explained, is equally important: the reaction of plants and animals to gravity.

Increasingly, she explained, our understanding of geotropism and solar radiation in the soil should be reshaping the way we approach grape growing.

One of her major long-term projects is planting woods around the family’s vineyards in order to regulate solar radiation. She’s thinking of the generation to come and the impact of climate change over coming decades.

There was so much to savor in our conversation. But the thing that really got me was when I asked her the simple question, would you call your wines “natural”?

Her answer: It’s not the wines that are natural. It’s the people, the winemakers who live their lives in balance with nature.

Alice Feiring once told me that she defines natural wine as an ideal, as in a Platonic ideal to reach for.

Chiara’s brilliant answer to my dumb question seemed to dovetail with what Alice told me so many years ago. It really captured, at least in my mind, the ethos of the natural wine movement.

Thank you, Chiara, for one of the most fascinating visits of my career. Your wines are yet another reason I can’t wait to get back to my beloved Abruzzo, a region I am proud to represent as its U.S. ambassador.