Viticulture in the Oltrepò Pavese area is in fact very ancient and the first written documents date back to Pliny and Strabo, who in 40 B.C., passing with a Roman legion, wrote 'good wine, hospitable people and very large wooden barrels'.
But what is the winemaking history of the Oltrepò Pavese? It was probably the Barbarians who named the land they encountered after crossing the river Po on their way down from the north. Inhabited by the Ligurians and the Insubri Gauls, Oltrepò came under Roman domination after the famous battle of Clastidium (today's Casteggio) in 222 BC.
With the Romans, the territory underwent strong development, thanks also to the construction of the main communication routes. At that time, as recorded in the chronicles of Pliny The Elder, viticulture was successfully practised and, as Columella recounts, good wines were drunk. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was the Barbarians who occupied these lands.
In the Middle Ages, famous noble and clerical families took over the territory. It was the Malaspina, the Visconti, the Beccaria, the Dal Verme, and the Sforza who controlled the territory and signed the history of the Oltrepò, leaving traces of their ancient power also in the towers, castles, churches and beautiful palaces that can be admired today in the towns and villages of Pavia.
Over the centuries, Oltrepò has been a much disputed land. Through peace treaties it passed into the hands of the great powers of the time: France, Spain, then Austria, which, under the reign of Maria Luisa, ceded Oltrepò to the crown of Sardinia with the Treaty of Worms (1743).
The first studies on ampelography and the cadastral censuses carried out at the end of the 18th century testify to the high oenological vocation of the territory and the great diffusion of viticulture. At the beginning of the 19th century, after a brief return to the French under Napoleon, Oltrepò was still part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and it was during this period that Piedmontese winegrowers began cultivating Pinot Noir grapes in the lands east of the historic Langhe, Asti and Monferrato areas. It was only from 1860 that the Oltrepo became Lombard territory.
In this land also known as 'Old Piedmont', Italian sparkling wine production began at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the Pinot Nero grapes, an excellent vine particularly suited to being vinified in white and then giving rise to noble sparkling wines produced with the classic method.
The winery has been owned by the Zonin family since 1987, who, having understood the value of this territory, expanded the area under vine from the initial 30 hectares to the current 104 (of which 84 are under vine). In this expansion phase, priority was given to the great wealth of noble native varieties such as the amazing Croatina and Barbera, which achieve exceptional quality standards here. But the undisputed king of the estate and the princely variety of Oltrepò, is Pinot Noir, which has expressed all its class and personality here for over two centuries. In fact, currently about 75% of the Pinot Noir cultivated in Italy is located in the Oltrepò Pavese.
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