Tradition and modernity in Oltrepò Pavese

The finding of an at least three thousand years ancient fossil shoot, occurred on the hills of the Oltrepò Pavese, proves the strong bond that for thousands of years ties the Pavese territory
beyond the Po river with the grapevine and the wine. Strabo, the Greek historian and geographer of the first century B.C., referring to the Oltrepò Pavese, wrote “The abundance of wine was indicated by the casks made of wood and bigger than the houses”.
There is evidence that at the end of the thirteenth century, after the harvest, six thousand wine wagons entered Milan every day. At that time the trade of wine transported to the places of consumption with wagons and boats along the Po river and its tributaries, was very flourishing. Napoleon took a break in Oltrepò and the landowner Giacomo Perincioli had the task of supplying
the wine to the table of Bonaparte who appreciated the wine of the Colline Oltrepadane so much to make a supply.
By the end of 1800, the wine-growing patrimony in Oltrepò was almost completely destroyed by the advent of the phylloxera. The cultivation and cultural renewal was undertaken by some emeritus pioneers. Among these, the Prime Minister Agostino Depretis (nicknamed by the opponents as “il Vinattiere di Stradella”) who actually introduced Pinot Noir in the High Oltrepadana Hill; Ing. Domenico Mazza of Codevilla who drew a bottle able to withstand the high pressure of a sparkling wine that he called the champagne of the Oltrepò; Senator Luigi Montemartini of Montù Beccaria, who in 1902 founded and became President of the first Wine Cooperative in Oltrepò Pavese (now the historical cellar of Montù Beccaria).
Still at the beginning of the twentieth century, the scientist Albert Einstein had the pleasure of passing through Oltrepò Pavese and toasting with the wine from Oltrepò Pavese.

The Oltrepò Pavese is therefore an area of great traditions and culture, a territory that is definitely devoted to wine, which today – with its 13,500 hectares of vineyards at the height of the 45th parallel, synonymous in the world of lands of great wines – produces alone more than 70% of DOC wines. Lombardy Region is the third largest D.O.C. area in Italy after Chianti and Asti and is the third largest producer of Pinot Noir.

We at Tenute Tonalini 1865 are proud to have our home and our roots here for five generations.