i. Biography
Emanuele Rolfo is the winemaker and owner of Ca' di Cairè in Montà, Italy, but his formation began before any title, in a cellar where family work looked, to a child, like play. The line starts with his grandfather Giovanni, passes through his parents, and continues in Emanuele’s hands with his wife Cesira, giving the winery the feeling of an inheritance still being actively made.
Where It Started As a child, Rolfo played in the cellar with a toy Vespa, pretending to load wine, deliver it to customers, make invoices, and record payments. It is a small scene, but it explains the scale of the education: not a distant idea of wine, but the daily movements of bottles, customers, accounts, and family responsibility. The winery’s own origin story begins with Giovanni, continues with Rolfo’s parents, and now belongs to the generation working with Cesira. He describes the project as a third-generation family artisanal wine project, a phrase that keeps the emphasis on hands, continuity, and domestic memory rather than on spectacle.
Who Shaped Them The shaping force around Rolfo is the Roero itself, read through family practice. His intended message in wine is, in his words, "A message of typicity and authenticity. An artisanal product that has emerged from the work of a family in its third generation." That family language does not make the wines nostalgic; it makes them attentive. "What fascinates me about my territory, in my company context, is the particularity of the soil, our terroir, which changes from hill to hill, and of the corresponding wines." For him, sandier Roero vineyards give white wines more savoriness and minerality, while stonier and generally richer soils give red wines richness of aromas, body, and freshness. His way of speaking about influence stays close to vineyards rather than abstraction: "I like, harvest after harvest, to find in the wines the peculiarities of each vineyard, each terroir." In that sentence, mentorship comes from the hills as much as from the cellar.
The Work Today
At Ca' di Cairè, Rolfo cultivates the native Roero varieties Arneis, Barbera, and Nebbiolo. The range includes Roero Arneis cru Menelic, Barbera d'Alba Bugia Nan, Barbera d'Alba Cà di Cairè, Nebbiolo d'Alba, and Roero Riserva. The Arneis program shows how closely the wines are tied to named parcels and measured cellar work. Roero Arneis is made from the Mumbasun, Vitori Fortuna, and Varomaldo vineyards in Montà; it ages for 4 months in stainless steel vats and 6 months in bottle, with annual production of about 6,500 bottles. A second expression, Roero Arneis Senza Solfiti Aggiunti, is made from vineyards in the same village, ages in stainless steel and bottle, and has an annual production of about 2,500 bottles. Menelic comes from the Mumbasun and Vitori Fortuna vineyards; it ages for 4 months in stainless steel vats, 4 months in small oak barrels, and 12 months in bottle, with about 2,000 bottles produced annually. The Nebbiolo side of the work gathers weight slowly. Roero Riserva is made from the Mumbasun and Priocchina vineyards, ages for 12 months in large oak casks and 6 months in bottle, and reaches an annual production of about 3,000 bottles.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Emanuele
What tradition or house shaped Emanuele Rolfo?
Emanuele Rolfo was shaped by Ca' di Cairè, the family winery begun by his grandfather Giovanni and continued by his parents.
Who did Emanuele Rolfo train under?
His formation is tied to the family cellar, from Giovanni through his parents, and to the Roero vineyards he reads harvest after harvest.
