The settlement  of the primitive inhabitants in this hilly region near Appennino are 
located in the Work-Stone Ages.  The mild climate, the fertile ground,  the great woods
of Chestnuts, Beech and Oak, reach of game have favourited into the centuries the
development of important villages and organized agricultural community.
The Roman occupation ( around the 224 a.C. ) keeps really communication roads,
linking this area to the Ligurian and Tuscan land, making easy the settlement of the 
principal urban villages exhisting today. The 1000 year, was really important for the 
demographic and economic  growning of this area, which was traversed by thousand
"religious pilgrims" coming from all over the Europe to Rome.
The castles and the fortresses, some parts still exhisting today, built by " Malaspina",
by " Visconti"  tell us about the feuds which divided this area until the second half of 
the '400 when the area was conquisted by "Sforza".  After the Spanish, French and
Austrian  domination, in the 1743 this place was given from Maria Teresa d'Austria
to the Sardinia King Carlo Emanuele III.  Dutring the first years of the '800 the area
is Lombard again. From the Middle Ages until today, the inhabitants with tenacity, 
affort and  far-sightedness created a florent agricultural  economy which product, the
most important, the " Prince", is the Wine, and the D.O.C. ones are the most known 
all over the world. The particular characteristic of the ground, the mild climate, ventilated,
without dryness periods , and with a moderated temperature range, together with a 
millenar tradition of the vineyard growning, all this creates wine like Bonarda, Barbera,
Riesling, Pinot nero ( white, red and sparkling wine), Buttafuoco, Sangue di Giuda,  
Moscato,  Cortese, ….etc.
The latest, the production and the recognition D.O.C. ( in the 1995 ) to three wines
"innovative" :  Sauvignon Blanc,  Cabernet Sauvignon and Malvasia Chardonnay.
In  the 1961 Giovanni Ballabio, ( illuminated wine growner from Oltrepo ) could in that
period in Italy  found the  " Consorzio Volontario Tutela Vini Tipici e Pregiati 
dell' Oltrepò Pavese " ( Voluntary Association for the protection of the typical and 
esteemd wine from Oltrepo) , in order to get value the beautiful landscape and his
farmer, and protecting the user too.
Sincel 1977 all that is kept by " Consorzio Vini D.O.C. Oltrepò Pavese " which has 
205 wineyards ( between cooperative wine growners' association and private growners).