Ettore Germano
Appellation: Barolo
Proprietor: Sergio Germano
Year Founded: 1856
Size: 25 hectares
Farming Practice: Sustainable
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In a region that prizes multigenerational lineages, the Germano family exemplifies the youth-driven history of artisanal winemaking.
Given the clean fruit, herbal aromatics, and austere elegance that typify his Serralunga Barolos—fermented along traditional lines in large-scale botti that soothe rather than stamp his single-vineyard offerings with oak—it’s no surprise to learn that Sergio Germano traces his estate’s origins to 1856. But behind the tale of his great-grandfather Francesco, who tended vineyards that passed to his grandfather Alberto, there’s another story that reveals a lot more about how Serralunga has cemented its reputation as the quintessential Barolo comune. And the crucial fact about this story is that it begins in 1964. Yet doesn’t actually start until 1975. Or, when you really think about it, 1988. Possibly 1993.
Pazienza. Let us introduce you one of the oldest and newest families in Barolo—one that shows what really makes this region tick.
Serralunga’s limestone-rich vineyards have indeed been esteemed since the mid 19 th century, but Sergio Germano’s forebears were like most contadini of that era: they farmed grapes and sold them to big winemakers who set the terms. Not until after World War II did Italian farmers escape the semi-feudalism that had long constrained ambitions of independence. So this story properly begins in 1964, when young Ettore Germano hatched a dream on the four hectares that comprised his patrimony. He wanted to show what kind of wine Serralunga was truly capable of producing—by vinifying the grapes himself.
Besides coming of age during an era when dreams were possible, Ettore had two great assets. The first was a surgical mastery of vine grafting that enabled him to overhaul his vineyards with superior clones, and to supplement his income as his renown spread through Piemonte and beyond. Deep into the autumn of his life, he could be found grafting vines halfway down Italy’s boot. The second was his bride, Rosanna Porro. For it was she who gave Ettore’s dream the scope it needed.
“Whenever I’d hear that someone had a piece of land to sell, I was always the one to push for us to buy it,” she’d recall. And since the only lenders willing to risk money on a farmer were the kind to be avoided at all costs, that meant scrimping and saving and holding the purse strings tight. So there were no indulgences, no vacations. Whenever an opportunity coincided with a bit of extra cash, the Germanos grew their holdings—each extra bit becoming a new frontier of labor for a family bent on building a better future. “I loved this life so much—I didn’t mind making sacrifices,” Rosanna would say. “We lived with dignity.”
Sergio was 10 years old when his father formally established the winery that still bears his name. That was 1975. But you’re not likely to unearth any Germano Barolos from those first several vintages, because production was on the order of a few hundred liters sold to a handful of private clients and friends. The pivot would come yet another decade down the line, when Sergio got his enology degree and hatched a dream of his own.
His was a case of like father, like son. Sergio, who built his experience working for other winemakers at first, shared his dad’s ambition to grow and change, albeit with a more experimental bent. He started by planting Chardonnay, an “unusual” choice that became more so when he later shifted it to a newly acquired parcel in Alta Langa where he also planted Riesling—a departure that left “everybody in the area perplexed” at the time. Now it looks like pure foresight, especially the Chardonnay, for as so many Maconnais producers wrestle to retain acidity amid Burgundy’s warming climate, Germano plies a similar price point with cooler vintages and fermentations that pack bouyant tropical aromas into sleek mineral frames.
Meanwhile Sergio worked “part-time” (translation: around the clock) with his dad on the traditional varietals. They hit their first commercial milestone in 1988, bringing the inaugural 5,000 bottles of Barolo, Dolcetto and Barbera to market along with a bit of that Chardonnay. It took another five years for the estate to vinify and bottle all its grapes: a loss for negociants and a fulfillment of Rosanna and Ettore’s life’s work.
By this time Sergio was all in—and finding that the open-minded attitude that had driven his expansion into whites could pay even greater dividends in the red heart of the family’s Barolo holdings. He has left the barriques to neighbors more interested in pushing nebbiolo into channels cut by international cult cabernets. Instead he lets the vineyards do the talking, and uses the cellar to draw out their nuances.
So destemmed grapes from Cerretta’s 50-year-old vines get 40 to 45 days on the skins before Sergio softens the edges in medium-sized barrels—while fruit from the similarly aged Prapò vineyard, whose ribbons of sand bring out nebbiolo’s sweet red berry side, matures in the 2,000- liter casks that have long been the region’s calling card. The 90-year-old plantings rooted in Lazzarito’s iron-flecked marl provide a chance to showcase Barolo’s natural muscularity, which Sergio emphasizes with up to 60 days of maceration and a full two years or more in the big casks. And from the young vines in Vignarionda—where the Germanos acquired and replanted a highly envied .4-hectare parcel in 2012—Sergio obtains what he dubs the quintessential Serralunga Barolo in a slightly unusual way: a 30- to 40-day whole-cluster fermentation that amplifies density and richness alongside the plot’s characteristic aromatic finesse.
This level of sensitivity to subtleties takes immense mental attention and sweat on the slopes. So Sergio’s lucky to share another thing with his father: good fortune in marriage. His wife Elena strikes a plainspoken note that echoes her mother-in-law’s memories. “The first years were difficult,” she says. “But we were young, and we had the will to do it.” Ettore Germano passed away in 2005. Sergio is, from one angle, the fourth-generation steward of an estate whose fifth generation waits in the wings. And that’s true: you can see that deep love of the land in the shift toward organic methods, green manure, the deployment of natural pheromones to “sexually confuse” unwanted moth species without dousing the vines in pesticide. Francesco and Alberto’s legacy is present in the 800 hours of manual labor that go into each hectare of these steeply pitched vineyards each year. There’s no doubt about that.
But from another angle the estate is barely out of the cradle. Ettore dreamed of vinifying all his grapes for most of his life before father and son pulled it off together. The first Germano Barolos were brought to market as Sergio took the reins. And therein lies a deeper insight into Barolo: The region’s aristocratic reputation belies an up-from-the-bootstraps reality that characterizes many family vineyards, and none more than Azienda Agricola Ettore Germano.
What was single-vineyard Serralunga Barolo like in the late 19th century? The truth is that it’s hard to know, because most of the grapes were raised by humble farmers for distant producers who blended them for aristocrats more attuned to luxury than its source. It took Italy’s mid-20th-century miracolo economico—and families like that of Ettore Germano—for the world to really find out. Barolo Prapó, Barolo Cerretta, Barolo Lazzarito, Barolo Vignarionda: these wines shine with a century of devotion, but they are marvels for which we have hardworking men and women of more recent vintage to thank.
Wines:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From a .5-hectare parcel of 15-year old vines in Serralunga
Soil: Limestone, marl with small percentage of sand
Elevation: 980-1,300 feet
Exposure: South - southwest
Vinification: Rosanna is a selection of green harvested grapes from the cru of Cerretta and fully ripe harvest of Germano's Nebbiolo plot in Ciglié (Alta Langa). Alcoholic fermentation for the base wine will take place in vertical stainless steel tanks. In the spring, the base wine is assembled and the draft is made for the second fermentation in bottle.
Maturation: Aging in the bottle on the lees for about 18 months or more
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Chardonnay
Vineyard Area: From a high elevation area of the southern Langhe called Ciglié. The vineyard covers 1.2 hectares vines are 20 years old
Soil: A mixture of soils, limestone, calcareous
Elevation: 1,080-1,300 feet
Exposure: East
Vinification: Grapes are harvested by hand and brought to the winery in small bins. Whole clusters are pneumatically pressed and the must transferred to a vertical stainless steel tank to begin fermentation at 18°C. Malolactic fermentation will occur.
Maturation: 6 months on the fine lees in stainless steel
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Barbera
Vineyard Area: From 20-year-old vines in Serralunga
Soil: Marl
Elevation: 980-1,300 feet
Exposure: Southeast
Vinification: The grapes are hand harvested and transported in small baskets to the winery. Bunches are de-stemmed and lightly crushed. Alcoholic fermentation occurs in vertical steel fermentors and over a 7- to 8-day period, the crushed grapes are in contact with the skins at a temperature of 25°C. Once fermentation is complete, the wine is racked to stainless steel tank and malolactic conversion occurs.
Maturation: Three months in stainless steel
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Barbera
Vineyard Area: From a single vineyard totaling 1 hectare in Serralunga — vines were planted in the 2000s.
Soil: Clay, limestone
Exposure: East
Vinification: The grapes are hand harvested and transported in small baskets to the winery. Once the grapes arrive, they are de-stemmed and lightly crushed before the start of alcoholic fermentation in vertical stainless steel fermentors. The fermentation and maceration will take place over the course of 10 days with several daily pump-overs. The wine is racked and malolactic fermentation takes place in a stainless steel tank before refinement in medium-sized oak barrels.
Maturation: One year in barrel another six months in bottle before release.
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From 2 hectares of vines in Serralunga and in Ciglié with an average age of 15 years.
Soil: Calcareous clay and sand.
Elevation: 1,200-1,300
Exposure: Southeast - southwest
Vinification: The grapes are harvested by hand and carried to the winery in small bins. After the de-stemming and crush the must undergoes alcoholic fermentation for 4 to 5 days in contact with the skins at a temperature of about 25°C, to extract some tannins and color. After the wine is racked off the skins, it finishes its fermentation without the skins. After which, the wine will undergo malolactic fermentation.
Maturation: 6 months in stainless steel
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From a total of .8 hectare of vines in the crus of Prapò, Cerretta and Lazzarito in Serralunga d'Alba — the average age of the vines is 15 years.
Soil: Clay, limestone with light sandy sediments
Elevation: 1,080-1,200 feet
Exposure: Southeast - southwest
Vinification: Grapes are harvested by hand and carried to the winery in small bins. Bunches are de-stemmed and lightly crushed. Alcoholic fermentation will start in vertical stainless steel tanks with maceration on the skins for about 20-30 days. After racking and malolactic fermentation, the wine is moved to barrels.
Maturation: 18 to 24 months in barrels of various formats and an additional 6 months in bottle before release
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From 3.2 hectares in the cru of Cerretta in Serralunga d'Alba — vines were planted in 1949, 1963 and 1995.
Soil: Limestone, sand and red clay
Elevation: 1,150-1,225 feet
Exposure: Southeast and west
Vinification: The grapes are hand harvested and transported in small baskets to the winery. Once the grapes arrive they are then de-stemmed, leaving 20% whole-clusters, and gently crushed in the stainless steel tanks. The maceration will take place for about 40-45 days with several daily pump-overs and occasional délastage to encourage extraction of color and tannins. After racking and malolactic fermentation, the wine is moved to a even combination of botti and barriques.
Maturation: 18 to 24 months, depending on the vintage and another 12 months in bottle before release.
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From a 1.5-hectare parcel in the cru of Prapò in Serralunga d'Alba — vines were planted in 1967, 1999 and 2012.
Soil: Clay, limestone with layers of sand
Elevation: 1,080-1,215 feet
Exposure: Southeast
Vinification: The grapes are hand-harvested and transported to the winery in small baskets. Once the grapes arrive they are de-stemmed and lightly crushed Alcoholic fermentation starts in vertical steel tanks with a maceration period of 40- 45 days with several daily pump-overs. After racking and malolactic fermentation, the wine is moved to botti.
Maturation: 18 to 24 months depending on the vintage and another 12 months in bottle before release.
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From a .42-hectare parcel in the cru of Vignarionda in Serralunga d'Alba — vines were planted in 2012.
Soil: Calcareous marl
Elevation: 1,080 feet
Exposure: South
Vinification: The grapes are harvested by hand and brought to the winery in small bins. For this wine only, grapes are crushed but not de-stemmed and then placed in vertical stainless steel tanks to begin alcoholic fermentation. Fermentation takes place with a maceration on the skins for around 30 to 40 days, during which several daily pump-overs take place. After racking and malolactic conversion the wine is moved to botti.
Maturation: 18 to 24 months depending on the vintage and another 20 months in bottle before release.
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Nebbiolo
Vineyard Area: From a .7-hectare parcel in the Seralunga cru of Lazzarito — vines are 90 years old.
Soil: Limestone, marl with deposits of sand and iron
Exposure: South-southwest
Vinification: The grapes are hand-harvested and brought to the winery in small bins. Bunches are de-stemmed, gently crushed before the start of fermentation in vertical steel tanks. A maceration period takes of 50 to 60 days takes place, employing daily pump-overs. After racking and malolactic fermentation the wine is moved to botti.
Maturation: 36 months in 2,000-liter oak barrels and two years in bottle before release
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