Vecchia Romagna is a Bologna, Italy–based distilling company that traces its roots back to 1820 when Jean Bouton (later Italianized to Buton) left Charente, France, to build a distillery in Ozzano, just outside the city. Its brandy is distilled from trebbiano bianco grapes in Charentais copper stills and was produced for the first time in 1939. Vecchia Romagna is currently the leading Italian brandy in its home market. The distillery employs both pot and continuous stills and ages the distillates separately in Limousin oak prior to bottling. See still, pot; and still, continuous. The most popular line is Vecchia Romagna Etichetta Nera (Black Label), a blend of three-year-old brandies, and the company also markets a ten-year-old reserva, as well as twenty-five- and thirty-five-year-old brandies in very small quantities. (Vecchia Romagna has also produced numerous liqueurs and brandies under the Buton name, some labeled “cognac.”) Since 1999, it has been owned by Bologna-based Gruppo Montenegro.
Venturini, Nestore, ed. Enciclopidea delle bevande alcoliche. Padua: Meb, 1984.
By: Jack Robertiello