Thirty years of Buttafuoco Storico and it shows. Thirty years wasted — from 1996 to 2026 — without managing to build a precise, clear, and distinct identity around what is one of the most fascinating and historically rich wines of Oltrepò Pavese. Thirty years in the shadow of nothingness, or close to it. Indeed, it is not enough to simply rename things — as seen with the recent urbi et orbi launch of the consortium brand “Classese” — to say with certainty that the territory has finally turned a corner and taken a common direction dictated by history. Oltrepò was, remains, and will continue to be for years a gamble — if not a risk — among Italian wine and sparkling wine regions. It will remain so until the numbers are on the side of the Consortium led (with stubbornness, but perhaps a bit of tunnel vision) by president Francesca Seralvo and director Riccardo Binda.
Not the number of hectares of Pinot Noir in the territory, boastfully flaunted by the Torrazza Coste body thanks to a copy-paste from Sole 24 Ore. But when the number of bottles of Metodo Classico claimed as Docg finally manages to grow and reach critical mass (Alta Langa docet). Swallowing up (and replacing) the widespread VSQ Pinot Noir-based sparkling wines, which constitute the real handbrake on the rise, consecration, and positioning of the Oltrepò champenoise with a controlled and guaranteed designation of origin. A sort of “internal competition” between producers of the same area. It remains baffling.
BUTTAFUOCO STORICO DELL’OLTREPÒ: NO FUTURE WITHOUT A PRESENT
“The Club del Buttafuoco Storico turns 30. A pact that speaks more and more of the future,” reads the headline of the press release issued yesterday by the excellent communication agency Wildfoxa. But what future can we talk about without a present? The truth is that Buttafuoco Storico, fundamentally, does not exist (yet). It does not exist (yet) because of the thirty-year manifest inability of the Oltrepò wine leadership to give true prestige to an extraordinary and unique gem.
A wine intrinsically and uniquely distinctive of Oltrepò Pavese, obtained from a blend of “indigenous” grapes of the area: Croatina, Barbera, Uva Rara, and Ughetta di Canneto. So much for the Pinot Noir bubbles with which one can — mostly — engage in a price war against Champagne, Franciacorta, Trento Doc, and Alta Langa. A Piedmontese denomination, the latter, which in a few years has signaled and is overtaking many at career speed. With a middle finger out the window.
Buttafuoco Storico turns 30 in the comical chaos of the “midday risotto feast” with which the producers of the Club del Buttafuoco Storico will celebrate, on Sunday, February 8, 2026, these thirty years of substantial darkness of ideas and inability to establish the quality and positioning of this wine among the great Italian reds (because that is what we are talking about). It doesn’t matter that the bottles of Buttafuoco Storico have “grown progressively from a tiny niche production to reach 70,000 units.”
30 YEARS OF FAIRY TALES. AL DENTE
And it is certainly not enough to tell the fairy tale — at least as ironic as the “midday risotto feast” sealing the 30th-anniversary celebrations — that “Buttafuoco Storico is today a wine whose value is on the same level as Oltrepò Pavese Metodo Classico. Establishing itself as one of the reference labels of the territory.”
Because there is nothing “established,” except for the fact that promoting this wine (at a local level, another contradiction) is a “Club” of producers instead of a Consortium. A Club that spent just under 500,000 euros to create the Enoteca del Buttafuoco Storico in Canneto Pavese, intended as a “physical and symbolic garrison for the wine and for the production area.” Meanwhile, in supermarkets, cheap bottles circulate (some even good) that have nothing “historic” about them. But they carry the same name, “Buttafuoco.” And they have “bubbles” (now that is the famous style!).
“What thirty years ago might have seemed like a gamble by a group of dreamers, especially in an Oltrepò Pavese then more oriented towards volumes and intensive viticulture — comments the president of the Club del Buttafuoco Storico, Massimo Piovani — today appears to be the only possible way to protect the viticultural heritage. And to carry the winemaker’s craft into the future. The forward-looking vision of the founders demonstrates the value of a serious project, born with a simple but no longer negotiable goal. To preserve the vineyard. To safeguard the historicity of the vines. And to defend, year after year, the quality of the grapes.” All very beautiful. As long as the risotto, on Sunday, February 8, 2026, is al dente.
