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Frecciarossa is a family estate on the hills above Casteggio, in the Oltrepò Pavese, south of the Po. Mario Odero bought the hill in 1919, and his great-granddaughter Valeria Radici Odero is the fourth generation on it. Its 21 hectares of organic vines grow mainly Pinot Nero, with Riesling, Barbera, Croatina and Uva Rara. The top wine is the Giorgio Odero Pinot Nero, a Slow Wine 2026 Top Wine. Visitors book a two-hour visit and tasting on the estate's site. Its farm restaurant serves lunch and dinner among the vines.
Lombardy
Mario Odero came from Genoa. He had spent his working life in England, trading coal between the two countries. After the First World War he came home and bought a hill in the Oltrepò Pavese, with a 19th-century villa on top. The Genoese had always favoured this countryside. In dialect the hill was Fraccia Rossa, red landslide. The name came from its red clay, veined with iron, which slips when the groundwater rises. A clerk at the land registry wrote Frecciarossa, red arrow, and the mistake stuck. The purchase was in 1919, and the family counts its winemaking from that year.
His son Giorgio studied agriculture so he could run the vineyards himself. Then he went to France to learn Pinot Nero in Burgundy and Champagne. He came back set on quality and on that grape. The estate sold its wine in bottle, unusual in the 1920s, and the name travelled. Alfred Hitchcock drank it at the Villa d'Este and let Giorgio know how much he liked it. When Prohibition ended in 1933, Frecciarossa was among the first Italian wines to reach the American market. In 1934 it was given national export mark number 19.
Margherita Radici Odero, Giorgio's daughter, joined her father in the late 1970s. In 1990 she renewed the cellar and the vineyards and brought in the consultant winemaker Franco Bernabei. Gianluca Scaglione took over in 2000 and still works with the estate, alongside Cristiano Garella. Her daughter Valeria Radici Odero came back to the hill some years ago, the fourth generation of the family on it. Mother and daughter began converting the vineyards to organic farming in 2014. The first certified harvest was 2017.
The estate covers 31 hectares, about 43 football pitches, and 21 of them are vines. The rest is hazelnut trees, fields of wheat and alfalfa, fruit trees and a vegetable garden. They are kept on purpose, so the farm is not vines alone. A few goats clear the woods and bees work the flowers. Six cows supply manure for a compost that also takes the estate's grape skins, cut grass and wood chips. The soil is what the ancient sea left when it drained from the Po plain: red iron-rich clay, marl and seams of gypsum. Shells still turn up under the spade. Each plot's soil and aspect decides which grape it gets. The local Croatina, Barbera and Uva Rara share the hill with Pinot Nero and Riesling, which arrived later but have settled in. All the grapes are the estate's own, picked by hand into small crates.
Pinot Nero has been the estate's grape since Giorgio's years in France, and the Giorgio Odero bottling carries his name. It comes from the heart of the old Vigna del Pino and a cooler north-facing vineyard. The grapes are trodden by foot and fermented with the estate's own yeasts in an untoasted oak vat. The wine then spends ten months in French barrels and a year in bottle before release. Slow Wine 2026 names the 2021 a Top Wine. The same grape makes Carillo, the red made in the largest numbers, and the still white Sillery. It also makes the Extra Brut and Rosé Extra Brut, traditional-method sparkling wines that spend more than 18 months on their lees. Visitors can book two experiences on the estate's own site. One is a two-hour vineyard and cellar visit with six wines. The other is the same visit ending in four vintages of Giorgio Odero. The farm restaurant, La Corte degli Inappetenti, serves dinner on Wednesday and lunch and dinner from Thursday to Sunday, by reservation. Its three rooms were made from the old farmhouses, and the cooking uses organic produce from the farm and nearby artisans.
Plate I · LOMBARDY
Wine area
The southern Apennine spur below Pavia, Italy's third-largest Pinot Nero zone and the historic home of Bonarda (Croatina).
Winery
Casteggio, Pavia · Oltrepò Pavese
2 tastings, checked by our editors. From €25.
Tasting & Tour
Two hours on the estate: a walk through the vineyards, the cellar, then a guided tasting of six wines. Booked and paid on the estate's own website, through its booking calendar.
We contact the estate for you
Tasting & Tour
Two hours: the vineyards and the cellar, then four vintages of the estate's Giorgio Odero Pinot Nero tasted side by side. Booked and paid on the estate's own website, through its booking calendar.
We contact the estate for you
Food Pairing
The estate's restaurant in the old farmhouses among the vines. Three rooms indoors and tables outside in good weather, cooking organic produce from the farm and nearby artisans. Open by reservation only: dinner on Wednesday, lunch and dinner from Thursday to Sunday and on national holidays. Book with the estate by email or phone.
We contact the estate for you
For enquiries, use the phone number and email in Plan your visit.
Frecciarossa's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Pinot Nero.
This form reaches the ItalianWines.co.uk team, not the winery. Tell us when you would like to come and how many you are: we contact Frecciarossa for you and come back with availability and prices, usually within two working days.
Est. 1919 
3 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required
