Luzzano

Roman origins

Luzzano’s agricultural history reaches back to the Roman period. Archaeological remains identify the site with the Fundus Lucianus, a substantial agricultural villa dating to the 1st century AD. The finds relate directly to viticulture and the transformation of grapes into wine. The estate’s historical account associates the name with a landholder called Lucianum and presents the villa as the first important settlement from which Luzzano developed.

Medieval records and monastic ownership

Luzzano first appears in a surviving written record dated 19 April 974. Preserved in the estate museum as a 12th-century authenticated copy, the document concerns judicial proceedings held in Pavia, then capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The hearing was presided over by Gualtiero, a judge and envoy of Emperor Otto II. During the proceedings, Archpriest Leone produced an exchange deed agreed with Giovanni, abbot of the monastery of S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro in Pavia. Among the exchanged assets were lands and vineyards described as being in loco et fundo Luciano.

A second parchment, dated 1196 and preserved in the Luzzano archive, records the abbots of S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro granting vineyard land in the territory of Lucani under emphyteusis. Luzzano remained a possession of the monastery, whose lands there were assigned under this form of long-term tenure to leading noble families of the area.

Noble proprietors

By 1600, the Marchesi di Pecorara were among the noble families holding the Luzzano property. The monastery’s assets were suppressed in 1781, after which ownership passed to the Conti Opizzoni. They replaced an ancient oratory with the present neoclassical church.

The property subsequently passed to the Conti Barbiano di Belgioioso. Pinot Nero vineyards were already present at Luzzano during the 19th century; plant material was brought from Burgundy, a precedent later followed when renewing the estate’s Pinot Nero plantings.

The Fugazza family

At the beginning of the 20th century, Luzzano and the neighbouring Romito estate became part of the holdings of the Fugazza family, a longstanding local family of landowners and early Italian preserved-food industrialists. The family added modern vineyards and transformation cellars to the two wine-growing properties, stimulating both estate production and local viticulture.

A fully underground vinification cellar was constructed in a wing of the castle in 1936. Its position, continuing functionality and substantial storage capacity—principally in cement tanks, subsequently glass-lined—allowed it to remain in use while being equipped with modern additions. The medieval castle cellar was later assigned to the maturation of reserve red wines in barriques.

Emilio Fugazza managed the family estates with the assistance of his daughter Maria Giulia from her youth. Although she held a degree in literature, Maria Giulia chose to devote herself to the agricultural properties as their management became increasingly demanding.

The 1980 relaunch

Giovannella Fugazza initially pursued a different career. After earning a law degree, she qualified as a legal procurator and temporarily remained apart from the family business. Following Emilio’s death, she returned permanently in 1980. That year Giovannella and Maria Giulia expanded estate bottling and introduced Castello di Luzzano as the brand carried by their bottles.

The sisters divided responsibilities according to their expertise. Maria Giulia directed the agricultural work, made decisions on new vineyard plantings, introduced additional varieties and pursued clonal selection centred on quality. Giovannella took responsibility for the cellar and commercial development. Together they began a new phase in which the wines reached a wider international audience.

During the 1980s, Giovannella also began investigating Luzzano’s buried history, cataloguing discoveries, working with archaeologists and undertaking the conservation and restoration of the property. A comprehensive restoration of the hamlet’s rural buildings began in the same decade, with former farmworkers’ homes gradually converted into guest apartments while retaining historic fabric and materials.

A dedicated bottling and storage department was built in 1985.

Archaeology, hospitality and sole direction

Two archaeological campaigns in 1995 and 1996, in which Giovannella participated, uncovered the remains of the large 1st-century Fundus Lucianus agricultural villa. Finds and documents relating to two millennia of settlement and winegrowing were assembled in a small museum at the entrance to the ancient cellar.

The restored Locanda La Dogana opened in April 1999 in an 18th-century customs house at the entrance to the property, adding rooms and a restaurant to the estate’s hospitality activities.

The sisters’ partnership ended with Maria Giulia’s death in 2004. Giovannella subsequently assumed direction of every branch of the business, supported by a younger team. The Castello di Luzzano brand also encompasses wine production from the separately identified, neighbouring Romito property in Piacenza territory; the two estates retain distinct soils and viticultural identities.

A borderland estate

Luzzano occupies a hill crossed by the boundary between Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. From the centre of the hill, at approximately 270 m above sea level, the landscape opens westward over the Oltrepò Pavese and eastward toward the Colli Piacentini. Vineyards surround the castle and its small rural hamlet, following the rolling contours of the hill.

The estate’s border position is longstanding and survived successive changes of political history and ownership. It also places Castello di Luzzano across two wine territories, represented by the Oltrepò Pavese and Colli Piacentini denominations.

Soils and vineyard expressions

The Luzzano vineyards are characterised by calcareous marl. These soils are associated with structured, savoury red wines capable of extended maturation, while white wines retain acidity and persistent, delicate aromas.

Croatina has a particularly long history in the calcareous-marl soils of the Luzzano property in Rovescala. Pinot Nero has been present since the 19th century. Its dedicated vineyard area exceeds 5 ha; one documented Pinot Nero block has a north-west exposure and is trained as a low spur-pruned cordon. Merlot for the Fracchioni vineyard is grown on a south-west-facing position.

The neighbouring Romito estate has a distinct profile of deep sands, clays and iron-rich silt and is therefore treated as a separate viticultural unit rather than an extension of Luzzano’s calcareous-marl terroir.

Castello di Luzzano has participated for more than twenty years in an integrated farming programme monitored by regional bodies. Its purpose is to reduce the use of plant-protection products and fertilisers. Permanent grassing is maintained beneath the rows across 100% of the estate’s vineyards.

Harvesting is predominantly manual. Less steep vineyards have also been prepared for mechanical harvesting with estate-owned equipment.

The estate selects its best plants and propagates clonal material from them when renewing vineyards. Maria Giulia Fugazza established this quality-led approach, introducing varieties and directing planting choices. Pinot Nero renewal has also followed the estate’s historical use of Burgundian plant material.

Each vineyard is harvested separately. This parcel-by-parcel organisation continues in the cellar so that the character of individual sites is retained. All bottled wines are produced from estate-grown grapes, with the best vineyards selected for bottling.

Cellars

Vinification takes place in a wing of the castle in a fully underground cellar built in 1936. Its location and functionality have allowed it to remain operational, with modern equipment added over time. Storage is dominated by cement tanks that have since been glass-lined.

A separate bottling and storage department was constructed in 1985. The castle’s medieval cellar is used for maturing reserve red wines in barriques.

Parcel-by-parcel production

Only estate-grown grapes are bottled. The best vineyards are selected, and every vineyard is harvested and vinified separately to preserve its individual characteristics.

Published cellar protocols demonstrate the use of destemming and crushing for red grapes, stainless-steel fermenters, skin maceration, pump-overs, malolactic fermentation and maturation of selected reserve reds in small French-oak barrels. The estate also employs soft pressing, low-temperature fermentation, maturation on fine lees, cold maceration and pressure-tank production for appropriate styles. These techniques vary by grape and intended wine rather than forming a single standard recipe.

Oenological oversight is provided by Dr Stefano Testa.