Ettore Germano

Fieldwork before the cellar

The grapes arrive in small boxes, picked by hand before the cellar takes over. Sergio Germano, winemaker at Ettore Germano in Serralunga d'Alba, keeps the work close to the rows and the vats. He returned to the family vineyards in 1993 after six years at the School of Enology in Alba and a brief period at Fontanafredda, then put his father’s name on the estate. Ettore Germano had been known locally for grafting vines and for making small quantities of wine for private customers. That is the lineage here, not a distant romance but a bench-side education in pruning, grafting, harvest timing, and the patience of Nebbiolo on Serralunga soils. Sergio has described growing up among the vines and working beside his father, with the land first as labor and only later as attachment. Today he remains the winemaker, working the vineyards and cellar with his wife Elena and a small crew. Since 2025, he has also served as president of the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo, Barbaresco, Alba, Langhe e Dogliani, but the fixed point is still the estate on the Cerretta hill.

Skin contact in vertical steel

The method starts with certified organic viticulture and a refusal to push the wines toward polish for its own sake. In Serralunga, the estate works Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, and Barbera on soils described for their limestone, clay, and sand, a combination that gives the Barolo DOCG wines their frame. The red-wine program centers on Barolo Serralunga, Prapò, Cerretta, and Lazzarito Riserva. Macerations generally run for 20–30 days on the skins in vertical stainless steel tanks, with aging divided between large traditional botti and medium-sized barrels according to the wine. Prapò comes from a small vineyard below Sergio’s house and cellar, where the oldest vines were planted in 1967 by his father. Cerretta sits adjacent to it, close enough to make the difference in the glass a lesson in site. Lazzarito Riserva comes from vines planted in 1931. The house also works beyond classic Serralunga reds: in Cigliè, more than 10 acres of higher-altitude vineyards supply cooler fruit for Riesling, Alta Langa, and other white and sparkling wines.

The cellar below Cerretta

The estate sits in the Cerretta area of Serralunga d’Alba, surrounded by Barolo vineyards and the long folds of the Langhe. The cellar and tasting room keep a quiet country rhythm, elegant without losing the rustic edge of a working winery. This is not a place arranged around spectacle. The view carries rows, slopes, and weather; the work carries the rest. From the hill, Serralunga’s medieval tower remains part of the visual grammar of the commune, a reminder that the wines here come from a village where structure is not an aesthetic choice so much as a condition of the ground. Inside, the barrels and tanks do not soften that message. They translate it.

Two hills in one program

The estate matters because Sergio has kept Serralunga as the red-wine center while making room for another altitude and another register. Cigliè gives the program acidity and lift for whites and sparkling wines; Serralunga gives Nebbiolo its depth of tannin and its long cellar line. The next vintage will still ask the same plain question of the hands: what Prapò, Cerretta, Lazzarito, and Herzu can carry from their rows into the bottle.