Italian wines Lombardia

A few kilometers from Tortona one of the biggest potential areas still undeveloped of the wine world within the country is located: the Oltrepò Pavese. There are potentials, there are climate and vineyards, too. Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Nero have found since a long time ago a good feeling with the land. Something seems to be still missing, but there are premises. Perhaps, what lacks is entrepreneurship, the same that in Franciacorta, in less than half a century, managed to create and enhance a territory, taking it to be today the most important Italian sparkling wine region.

Unexpectedly, Nebbiolo returns: we are in Valtellina, the only Lombard Prealps valley facing south, very far away from Barolo. Magically, this grape ripens in the terraces in the sun. To visit this area helps to understand the difficulties that daily a producer meets, where slopes of more than 45° are processed and managed impeccably by brave and daring artists-winegrowers. In addition to classic Inferno, Sassella, Grumello, Valgella and Maroggia, a wine from withering but dry is also produced, that synergistically brings together the grape of Barolo, called here Chiavennasca, and the technique of Amarone della Valpolicella: Sforzato di Valtellina.




The first testimonies of the presence of vines in the Lombardy region date back to the prehistoric period and, in particular, to the bronze age. It was from the seventh-fifth centuries BC that "vitis sativa" started to be grown, brought to the region by the Etruscans who taught local people how to grow grapes and make wine. Around 400 BC the Gauls came, settled in the Po Valley and introduced different techniques of processing, such as the introduction of wooden barrels. The great input to the development of winemaking arrived, however, only with the beginning of the Roman rule, which brought to a further modernization of technical processes. With the first barbarian invasions and the fall of the Roman Empire, the wine sector suffered from a crisis, but that did not prevented the Ostrogoths to define "regal" the wines produced on the shores of Lake Garda. With the arrival of the Lombards, vineyards were decimated, but production resumed around the year one thousand.




After centuries of unchanged cultivation, in the eighteenth century live pillars were abandoned for wooden poles: vineyards became immediately more productive but had to struggle against parasitic diseases from America. In addition, within a few years, the two world wars broke out and countrysides were razed to the ground.




Starting from the end of the fifties, in conjunction with the economic boom, the wine sector experienced a new enhancement taht, in Lombardy, was probably more important than in many other Italian regions.