Valeria Radici, owner of the farm Frecciarossa in Casteggio, Oltrepò Pavese (Pavia, Lombardy), tell us about Giorgio Odero Oltrepò Pavese doc Pinot Noir, the wine that takes name from her grandfather, Giorgio Odero, who brought Frecciarossa to be one of the most important Italian wineries during the post-war.
Giorgio Odero Oltrepò Pavese Pinot Nero Doc is produced from grapes grown on clay and limestone soil at an altitude of 120-160 meters above sea level and its the annual production is around 10,000 bottles. After a soft destemming, the fermentation in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperature lasts 8 to 10 days, it makes malolactic fermentation in barrels, maturation for 12 months in French oak barrels and bottle aging for 18 months.
The color is intense ruby red with light orange reflections, brilliant. The bouquet is intense on the nose, complex, spicy, with the smell characteristics of black currant, vanilla and red berries. The palate is very elegant, intense, fruity, with ripe tannin, warm, harmonious and balanced and has a good structure… but let’s listen Valeria now!
The history of the farm Frecciarossa dates from the early twentieth century when Mario Odero left England and chose to move into the area of Oltrepò Pavese. At the end of the first World War he bought the estate in the municipality of Casteggio (PV), settled there with his family and began to devote himself to his wine. His son Giorgio managed wine production, marketing and relationships with foreign customers with great passion and excellent preparation in the wine industry and led Frecciarossa to be one of the most important Italian wineries in the post-war period.
Since 1920 the winery (whose core dates back to 1700) grew a lot and grew its reputation too; Frecciarossa becomes the official supplier of the Real House of Savoy and the Viceroy of India, engaged in several international competitions and its wines were on the tables of the great transatlantic lines connecting Europe with England and America. In the eighties the winery develops a brand relaunch with a new business focus on international markets, in nineties the cellars were renovated and adapted to modern winemaking techniques, the vineyards were replanted.
At present the estate is composed of nearly 35 hectares of which 20 are vineyards in production and 6 in the process of replanting. The grape varieties – riesling, pinot noir, croatina, barbera, uva rara and merlot – are bred with the simple Guiyot system with the objective to find the right balance between vegetation and production. The focus is on the quality of the fruit that is harvested manually between the end of August and early October with a careful selection of grapes.
Frecciarossa is a name that identifies a zone defined by the military cards in the age of theRisorgimento (the period leading to unification of Italy) and it’s derived from the ancient dialect term “fraccia”, “landslide”, which became the “freccia=arrow”, and “rossa=red” because of the color of these soils clay.
