BUTÉGA VALTELLINA
Butéga Valtellina embodies a new distribution model and was created – Giorgio continues explaining – “to breathe new life into the community I live in”. Butéga, is a dialect word used for a small-size artisanal shop, and is also ideally a synonym for product quality, wholesomeness, and authenticity. “Butéga Valtellina’s: payoff is “Unici non Tipici” (Unique, not typical). We have chosen it because this concept often came up during our meetings with the local farmers. In Italy there is much talk about typical products, but this adjective does not truly reflect what we mean by “typical products” in our villages and small communities. A family’s farming methods, local specialities or the recipes handed down from one generation to the next within households – this is what we mean by unique”, explains Giorgio.
Recipes handed down between generations
One of Butéga Valtellina’s friends is AlpLab, a social promotion association that is currently implementing a project called Comunità che nutrono.(Nourishing communities), as part of which it looks for, studies, and promotes niche products and recipes from the Valtellina tradition. members have been looking for ancient recipes and talking to those who preserve the local traditions. The recipes can be found on the project’s YouTube channel. After identifying about a dozen recipes, AlpLab is now working to reintroduce them on market, by developing marketing strategies and innovative design packaging capable of appealing to today’s consumers. Unique products include: the mac diBerbenno, – mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, and cheese; the bungiu di Mello, sweet bread with dried fruit; the cornàt di Sondalo, small sweet focaccias; the fughiascin di Gordona, small pieces of risen and fried focaccia, and the furmagin da cion di Poschiavo, a spiced pork pie.
“The producers we work “do not exist” on the market. Without a thorough analysis and selection process, even we, who live and work in the Valtellina valley, would not have been able to get in contact with them. Those who simply look for an assortment of products labelled as “typical” often end up accepting products that are only partially local, while we are proposing recipes that have been handed down from one family to the next and strictly controlled production processes that respect nature and biodiversity”. For its three partners, the butéga is an alternative to large-scale distribution, as its production volumes are limited and the utmost care is devoted to product quality.
La Butèga di Giorgio Gobetti e soci – formally established in August 2018 – currently cooperates with approximately 15 partners, including farmers and small processing businesses. “They are all based between Sondrio and Bormio, two towns of the high Valtellina valley (Alta Valtellina), about 60 kilometres far from one another. There are long-standing businesses, but also recently established ones, which we are helping by sharing with them the skills and knowledge we gained during the “on-campus” course ReStartAlp”. Butéga Valtellina product range currently includes alp cheese, potatoes, small fruits, cereals, honey, saffron, officinal and aromatic herbs, cold cuts, meat, wine, beer, and apple cider.
Product range
“All products will always clearly bear the producer’s name and data – their value lies in the producer’s identity” explains Giorgio Gobetti. Whenever processing takes place in Butéga Valtellina’s laboratory, this business’s logo will also be there, as a symbol of quality and adherence to a “Manifesto”, a sort of ethical charter that is currently being drawn up.
“Our brand will also be on the products to which we significantly contributed, for instance on wine, for which we took care of packaging”,
concludes Gobetti.
