Ceretto

Piedmont, Italy

Ceretto is a leading winery in the heart of the Langhe, a hilly sub-region of Piedmont founded by Riccardo Ceretto in 1937, and is still family-owned and managed to this day.

In a nutshell: In the 1960s, brothers Bruno and Marcello, the sons of Riccardo, selected and purchased vineyards, including some of the best Barolo and Barbaresco crus for making and marketing their wines.

When they took over, the brothers started to think about making single vineyard Barolos and Barbarescos. At the time, this was revolutionary with other producers not convinced of the value of different soils. This resulted in the creation of nine individually acclaimed single vineyard wines. In the 1990s, Bruno and Marcello’s children, Lisa, Roberta, Alessandro and Federico, took over the business. They made it their mission to expand and improve the winemaking, in line with their artistic and charitable commitments.

To date, this has included several ventures, including the launch of the Relanghe Project, created to immortalise the Piedmont IGP hazelnuts, a focus on events and exhibitions of contemporary arts, as well as the family-owned ‘La Piola’ restaurant, and the 3 Michelin starred ‘Piazza Duomo’ in Alba. However, the main focus remains on the wines with all of the estate-owned Ceretto vineyards farmed organically since 2010, obtaining organic certification from the 2015 vintage. The family also practice biodynamic farming.

The terroir: Ceretto own 25 hectares of Barolo and Barbaresco vineyards, located 70 km from the Mediterranean, and 50km from the Alps. The soils of the Langhe hills are rich in limestone and in grey marls, alternated with layers of sand. The micro-climate is cool continental, with warm summers and rigid winters, with strong diurnal temperature variations during the ripening period.

The Ceretto ‘personality’: Ceretto’s winemaking principles are guided by the region and the people, promoting the wines and the unique character of the Langhe, whilst defending the soil and the terroir.

Ceretto Barbaresco Bernadot 2021