The Making of an Italian Icon
The story begins not in Italy, but in Charente, the spiritual home of cognac. In the early nineteenth century, Jean Buton, a distiller from one of the region’s established families, made a decision that would carry his craft across borders. He brought with him a recipe book, a slim volume of distillation methods and family secrets, and travelled south to Bologna. There, in 1820, he founded a new distillery, Distilleria Buton.
At the time, Italy was not known for brandy. Wine, yes. Vermouth, certainly. But fine grape distillates in the French style were something of a novelty. Buton applied Charentaise methods to Italian grapes, bringing precision and patience to a land with a different character.
For more than a century, the house grew steadily. Barrels were filled and stacked in the cool underground cellars, and the name Cognac Buton became known across Italy. Leadership eventually passed to the Sassoli de Bianchi family, Bolognese aristocrats who took the reins in the late nineteenth century. They expanded production, refined methods, and turned the distillery into one of the country’s most respected producers.
Then came the war.
In 1943, Allied bombs fell over Bologna. The distillery, like much of the city, was hit hard. Buildings were reduced to rubble and copper stills lay twisted in the wreckage. It could easily have been the end. But beneath the devastation, the old underground cellars held firm. Cool and silent, they protected rows of barriques and small oak casks, some already years into their slow aging.
After the war, it was these cellars that gave the house its second life. Their contents became the foundation for rebuilding, not just materially but symbolically. Vecchia Romagna’s survival story begins with spirit quietly maturing in the dark while everything familiar collapsed above.
In the postwar years, the Sassoli de Bianchi family faced a challenge that went beyond bomb damage. International agreements had by then restricted the use of the word cognac to France alone. The old name, Cognac Buton, could no longer be used.
Under Count Achille Sassoli de Bianchi, the distillery was reborn. The name changed to Vecchia Romagna, Old Romagna, a nod to the region’s deep cultural roots. A distinctive triangular bottle appeared on shelves, three sides symbolising mastery, perfection and craftsmanship.
Over the following decades, Vecchia Romagna became Italy’s number one brandy, woven into the cultural fabric. Bars, trattorie and cafés stocked the triangular bottle, its amber spirit a familiar companion to conversations and late night rituals. In 1999, the brand joined Gruppo Montenegro, a new chapter that brought scale and global reach, but the core identity remained tied to the cellars, the family and the legends forged in the shadow of war.
Distilled from Italy’s finest grapes and aged in barriques and small oak barrels, it opens with ripe papaya and pineapple, threaded with clove and cinnamon. On the palate it is dry yet generous, layered with fruit and spice, its deep burnished gold colour a reminder of those cellars that once held everything in trust.
