Oltrepò Pavese Pinot grigio

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The Oltrepò Pavese displays a pre-Apennine topography marked by landslides and extensive erosion zones where marls, calcareous sandstones, galestro, and gypsum come to the surface.
• The most recent Miocene formations date to the Messinian, characterised by pale yellow marls with calcareous lenses, present in the soils of Montù Beccaria, Rovescala, and Canneto Pavese, among others.
• The areas around Montalto Pavese, Calvignano, Rocca Susella, and Godiasco belong to the Langhian, consisting of a massive layer of marls, predominantly white to bluish-grey, deposited in a very deep sea.
• The gypsum unit consists of lenticular bodies of medium- to coarse-grained crystalline gypsum and outcrops over very limited surface areas near Garlassola, Mondondone, and Corvino San Quirico.
• Solar radiation in the eastern area ranges between 2,250 and 3,000 MJ/m² per year, while in the western area south-facing slopes often reach values above 2,750 MJ/m² per year.
• Mean annual rainfall peaks at 143 mm in November and drops to a minimum of 47 mm in July, with a gradient that decreases from east to west to as low as 556 mm/year at the border with the Alessandria area.

• Strabo, in the first century BC, attributed to the Oltrepò Pavese the invention of the barrel, which he described in his writings as being larger than houses.
• In 1884 the Oltrepò Pavese counted some 225 native varieties, whereas today only about a dozen of the most widely planted are cultivated in the zone.

• The wines display a straw-yellow colour, sometimes with a slight copper or rosé tinge tending toward a pale cherry hue, with a characteristic and fruity nose.
• On the palate the wines are fresh, savory, and pleasant, with well-balanced chemical and physical characteristics and aromas predominantly typical of the Pinot grigio variety on the nose.

• The wide diurnal temperature ranges of the higher, cooler hillside areas yield a particularly fresh wine, with an agreeable touch of acidity and good structure on the palate.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Italy

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-IT-A1010
• Official trade body site — Consorzio Tutela Vini Oltrepo Pavese