Croatina

The story

Croatina's documented home is Rovescala, in Oltrepò Pavese, where a notarial deed of 22 March 1192 records three Lombard feudatories forcing Count Anselmo of Rovescala to settle a debt not in coin but in 600 congi — about 20 hectolitres — of "the best wine he has on the place" from his Rovescala vineyards. It is evidence of a graded local wine reputation, not proof the grape itself was Croatina, since no medieval notary named varieties. By the 1800s the variety — prized for its resistance to powdery and downy mildew — had spread from Rovescala into the Colli Piacentini and then into Piedmont's Novarese and Vercellese hills. Along the way it picked up the commercial name "Bonarda," a regional naming custom, not a synonym, that it now shares confusingly with at least three unrelated grapes: Bonarda Piemontese (differentiated by ampelographer Giuseppe di Rovasenda in 1873), Uva Rara ("Bonarda Novarese"), and Argentina's Bonarda (actually Douce Noire/Charbono from Savoie). Italy's own 1962 Registro Nazionale untangled much of this: Croatina's official synonym list never carries "Bonarda di Gattinara," which belongs instead to Uva Rara, and it files "Nebbiolo"/"Spanna" at Gattinara and Ghemme as an outright erroneous local name for Croatina — the very confusion VIVC's own passport still repeats today. Croatina's own parents remain unresolved even in a 2021 genome-wide SNP atlas of Italian varieties, but that same study confirms Croatina fathered a modern cultivar, Ervi, with Barbera — the same grape it shares the Gutturnio and Buttafuoco blends with.

Insider story

Lino Maga fought Italian bureaucracy for roughly 22 years — from co-founding the Oltrepò consortium in 1961 to a favourable 1986 Consiglio di Stato ruling — to claim "Barbacarlo," a hillside renamed after an uncle, Carlo, who died in 1886, as his family's alone. He harvested at 30 quintals/ha against a legal maximum of 200, explaining simply: "Il vino è una cosa seria!" ("Wine is a serious matter!"). The wine is bottled outside the DOC system entirely, as a "Provincia di Pavia" IGT. Croatina also has two self-imposed rulebooks that flatly disagree with each other: the Club del Buttafuoco Storico (founded 7 February 1996 by eleven young growers) requires its whole blend fermented in ONE vessel, while Tenute Sella's Bramaterra "I Porfidi" ferments each variety separately, macerating Croatina just 19 days against 31 for its Nebbiolo and Vespolina partners — two Croatina cultures, 100 km apart, with opposite answers to the same question. Worth knowing: one online summary invented a detailed 1831 Gallesio citation ("Croattino," at Canneto Pavese) and attached it to a real but unrelated URL about Grignolino — the actual page contained none of it.

Technical deep dive

Croatina buds in the last third of April, flowers around 20 June, véraisons mid-August, and ripens medium-to-late (1st–4th "epoca," early October) — though a 2024 field trial found ripening now sliding to mid-September under warming. Vigour is high but yield erratic: basal-node fruitfulness measures just 0.81 clusters/node against more than 1.33 in neighbouring Oltrepò natives, forcing long-cane pruning; it compensates with unusually heavy clusters (over 350g, versus about 200g in Uva Rara and Ughetta). Disease resistance is notable against oidium but only average against peronospora; the vine is also susceptible to tortrix moths, and — per nursery data — to rachis desiccation, coulure and millerandage in wet years, plus poor summer-drought tolerance. Eleven registered clones exist (R2, VCR43, VCR49, VCR210, VCR358, MICR9/10/12, PCBO1/16, CVT43), independently selected by programmes in Friuli, Turin, Milan and Piacenza. In the cellar, its thick, pruinose, deep blue-black ("turchino") skin gives high extractable colour and tannin, but realised tannin is a winemaking choice: a few days' maceration gives soft, fruity, frizzante Bonarda (85–100% Croatina); longer maceration produces "demanding and massive" tannin — exactly why Tenute Sella caps Croatina's own maceration at 19 days versus 31 for its Nebbiolo/Vespolina partners in Bramaterra "I Porfidi." Large or used oak casks are the recommended format over new barrique. Sensory: deep ruby-violet colour with a high anthocyanin load; a violet-and-red/black-fruit nose with a spice note; medium-to-full body; low-to-moderate acid (varietal legal minimum 4.5 g/l, a full 0.5 g/l below the Nebbiolo-led Bramaterra blend's 5.0 g/l); a recurring faint bitter finish noted in both the Bramaterra disciplinare's legal language and an independent German tasting profile. Benchmark comparisons split between Dolcetto (soft register) and Syrah (spiced register).

Industry secrets

Croatina leads three distinct Oltrepò Pavese DOCs, not one: Bonarda (85–100% Croatina, still/frizzante), Buttafuoco (25–65%, dry, still/frizzante) and Sangue di Giuda (25–65%, sweet — vivace/frizzante/spumante only, no still version permitted). Buttafuoco and Sangue di Giuda share an IDENTICAL legal recipe with Barbera yet produce opposite wines — the character is decided entirely in the cellar. It also holds two further dedicated varietal typologies (minimum 85% Croatina) elsewhere in Piedmont, in Coste della Sesia and Colli Tortonesi. In Alto Piemonte proper it is a disciplined minority partner: capped at 30% in Bramaterra (Nebbiolo/Spanna 50–80%), and legally absent from neighbouring Boca, Fara and Sizzano despite some secondary sources claiming otherwise. Gutturnio DOC (Piacenza, Croatina 30–45% as "Bonarda" plus Barbera 55–70%) legally permits vinification in Rovescala — a Lombardy village outside the region entirely (Art. 5). Market reality: no auction market exists for any Croatina wine in English, Italian, German or French sources — these are drinking wines, not a financial asset class; even the cult bottling Barbacarlo trades through allocation-style specialist retail, not auction.

For collectors

More red grapes

• Dolcetto
• Dornfelder
• Duras
• Espadeiro
• Fer Servadou