It’s unlikely you will have heard of “Classese,” a trademark term for Metodo Classico Blanc de Noirs Oltrepò Pavese that combines “classico” and ”Pavese.” But from July 2026, Classese and Classese Rosé will appear on labels in a bid to promote this DOCG and distinguish it from the plethora of styles made in the Oltrepò Pavese region. As Riccardo Binda, director of Oltrepò’s consorzio, remarks “we have 15 grape varieties and make every style but fortified. Historically this was a good thing, but now it’s an issue.”
Binda, who returned to his homeland after 12 supremely successful years as consorzio director promoting the image of Bolgheri, is now determined to repair the reputation and fortunes of Oltrepò Pavese and believes Metodo Classico Blanc de Noirs is the region’s strongest wine and USP. Among the four Italian regions making Metodo Classico, including Franciacorta, Alta Langa, and Trento, only Oltrepò is focused on Pinot Noir with a DOCG exclusively for Blanc de Noirs.
In the 1970s, Oltrepò produced some highly acclaimed wine, although the trend moved to inexpensive red blends based on Croatina which went down a storm in nearby Milan creating great prosperity throughout the 1980s when Oltrepò was equally busy churning out vins clairs (base wines) for sparkling in other regions before these gained their DOCs. In fact Oltrepò’s first Pinot Noir vineyard was planted in 1865 at Vistarino in collaboration with Piedmont producer Gancia. Even today Binda tells me Italian Metodo Classico labelled VSQ Pinot Nero is most likely made from Oltrepò vin clair.
Sadly, Oltrepò became a victim of its own success, failing to evolve, as Tuscany and Piedmont did, and severe decline set in by 2000. Binda points out the abandoned hillside vineyards. Traditionally growers manage small parcels selling grapes to co-operatives, but the price of production (€1 per kilo) is unsustainable in relation to sales at €0.70–€1.20 per kilo for Pinot. In Franciacorta it’s €3. Moreover, the largest co-op, Terre d’Oltrepò, has pretty much closed its doors.
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Yet Oltrepò still has 2,900ha (7,170 acres) of Pinot Noir (from a total vineyard area of 12,000ha [29,650 acres]), which is the lion’s share of the total of 5,000ha (12,360 acres) of Pinot Noir planted in Italy. This yields just 700,000 bottles of DOCG Metodo Classico, while Binda estimates potential production at 20 million. Admittedly there’s a further 1.3 million bottles of VSQ. Many producers feel that making DOCG, with the stricter regulations this entails, doesn’t add sufficient value to be worthwhile, but Binda is hoping the new marketing drive and Classese trademark will persuade them to join the fold.
Classese prescribes stricter rules including hand harvesting and lees aging of 36 months for Vintage and 48 for Riserva, but land is cheap and producers outside the region are spotting the potential. Unable to expand in Franciacorta (where the 3,000ha [7,410 acres] DOCG area is fully planted), Guido Berlucchi which represents 22% of Franciacorta’s output, is investing €10 million in Oltrepò to produce exclusively DOCG Oltrepò Pavese Metodo Classico Rosé, a style which has an additional trademark, Cruasé. President Paolo Ziliani is on a Classese Rosé Cruasé crusade. While a parallel campaign is not something the Consorzio could manage yet, if anyone has the reputation, technical experience, and marketing muscle to carry off Oltrepò’s fizzy rosé revolution, it’s Berlucchi, with the first release scheduled for 2027.
Currently there are 47 producers making DOCG Classese. After tasting a sample from each, encompassing a range of vintages, at the Consorzio, I was impressed with the overall standard and subsequently visited Brandolini, Calatroni, Ballabio, Bruno Verdi, and Scuropasso, all making excellent wine. There was also a standout wine from Monsupello, albeit their entry level, and I liked offerings from Oltrenero, Mazzolino, Bosco Longhino, Cavallotti, large-scale producer Giorgi’s 1870 Gran Cuveé Storica and Fiamberti Caristoro Ambrogio from 2013. These wines really age well.
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Visits to Vistarino and Mazzolino illustrated Oltrepò’s potential for terroir-driven still Pinot Noir. However, the vast majority of clonal material comes from Champagne, a limiting factor for making good Pinot. For now, and probably the next decade, while new vineyards come online and producers polish their Pinot-making skills, Classese is the wine to showcase Oltrepò Pavese.
The distinctive style of Classese
Classese has a distinctive style: fresh, vibrant, straight, and neatly edged with little or no oxidative character (even with barrel aging of base or reserve wine) and delicate autolytic characters which don’t dominate site or variety. Classese retains a zippy-fresh, direct, and channeled profile after ten years on lees, which makes a welcome change from the more oxidative aged style. Typically, they have a smidgen (2-3.5g/l) or no dosage which suits me too. With total acidity between 7–8 g/l they are well balanced and not super sharp and pHs a fraction below 3 support aging. Few have malolactic which is no longer necessary or desirable.
The best wines are unexpectedly captivating, as is the landscape of switchback hills where woodland is interspersed with pockets of vines. In the south of Lombardy, 50 km (30 miles) south of Milan, Oltrepò Pavese is defined by a range of north-facing hills rising from the flat rice-growing Po Valley to 1,800m (5,900ft) with vineyards located from 100m (330ft) in the north to 600m (1,970ft) in the south. The soil is calcareous and clay, perfect for Pinot Noir. Four valleys run north-south for roughly 20km (12 miles) with small transverse side valleys offering multiple aspects. The three valleys of significance for sparkling are Valle Coppa, a wide valley on the west side; the narrow, windy and sometimes steep sided Valle Scuropasso in the middle; and Valle Versa, the historic place for Pinot Noir and Metodo Classico, which is the furthest east, the most densely planted, and the wettest, with slopes that are softer than Scuropasso. From July the valleys can be mentioned on the label.
Over the past 40 years, Fabio Marazzi of Cantina Scuropasso, in the eponymous valley, has seen the ideal viticultural location move from Pietra d’Giorgi midway down the valley at 350m (1,150ft) to Ruino on the southern border at 600m (1,970ft). I particularly liked Roccapietra (Scuropasso’s Classese label) Zero 2020 a blend of fruit from Ruino (a still wine illustrated its high acidity and dry sapidity) with riper fruit from Pietra de’Giorgi which Marazzi sees as the new northern (warm) frontier of Classese production where Marazzi and his daughter Flavia (an enologist) have recently planted the north-facing slope.
However, there are exceptions. Bruno Verdi produces alluring Classese further north in Canneto Pavese a commune typically planted with Croatina where the family located a cool pocket on the ridge between the Scuropasso and Versa valleys. Vergomberra is both seductive and elegant. They have recently planted Dijon clones of Pinot Noir, on a draughty bottom slope, versatile for sparkling and still wine from which I tasted delicate floral vin clair 2025 destined for rosé. Paolo has been joined by third generation Laura (also studying enology) and Jacopo. A young, well-qualified generation was much in evidence on my visits. Very encouraging.
At Ballabio, Filippo Nevelli and son Mattia label their Classese line Farfalla after a windy, butterfly-shaped vineyard planted in 2007 in Valle Coppa. Making 90,000 bottles, Ballabio is a larger producer drawing from 30 parcels across the valleys. I enjoyed their small production riserva wines. Farfalla Cave Privée 2018 has 70 months on lees. 20% is aged in 500l oak, “For just a small bit of oxidation when we have no dosage.” 2013, disgorged on the spot, showed an extra level of refinement. But the floral, citrus, salty 2016 La Parcelle, one of 400 bottles made from a 0.2ha (0.5 acres) top section of Farfalla vineyard on more limestone, stole the show.
Most producers I visited work with a little reserve wine, of which 15% is allowed for Vintage wines (Non-Vintage is not a thing in Oltrepò Pavese). Alessio Brandolini in Valle Versa will shortly release a new label, Sansole, based on 2021 with 30% perpetual reserve kept in stainless steel at 13°C (55°F), and with no MLF “to keep the perfume and aromatics.” This delicate, floral, cool Classese comes from a north-facing vineyard.
Previously selling to Terre d’Oltrepò, fifth-generation Alessio began bottling 15 years ago. Brandolini’s style is direct, racy, and crystalline. “No wood and no MLF. I like fresh wine,” Bandolini says. The fine mousse he attributes to pressing with no tumbles. Showing finesse and shivery minerality, I GER comes from an old, east-facing vineyard, while breezy, perfumed sea-spray Note d’Agosto was among the best rosés I tasted. The other was a super-silky 2018 Cuvée Rosé from Calatroni.
Also in Valle Versa, at Calatroni, Stefano and his enologist brother Christian took the helm in 2008. Their grandfather was a sharecropper, bottling his own wine in the 1960s, while their parents found it more profitable to sell to Terre d’Oltrepò. Since then, it’s been all change sice Calatroni now produce 180,000 bottles. Within this the estate demonstrates the capacity for terroir-driven Classese. Riva Rinetti is floral-subtle and pure from a northeast-facing vineyard in Montecalvo, while Poggio dei Duca from a 500m (1,640ft) windy, calcareous plateau in neighbouring Rocca de Giorgi is austere, grippy, and salty yet exotically aromatic. The character of the vins clairs I tasted is clearly sustained through the second fermentation and lees aging.
If Oltrepò-Pavese is at rock bottom, the only way is up and these innovative producers are leading the way with Classese. Why not try some?
