Est. 1856 
5 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
The Classic
A five-wine flight that runs from the Alta Langa whites to two Barolos, framed as a survey of the estate's range. Tasting includes a guided cellar visit at Località Cerretta.
Book this experienceEttore Germano
Piedmont, ItalyEttore Germano farms ten hectares in the heart of Serralunga d'Alba and another nine in Cigliè, the cooler reaches of the Alta Langa. From the Cerretta hillside the Germano family draws Barolo Cerretta, Prapò, Vignarionda and a Lazzarito Riserva, while the high-altitude Cigliè estate produces Riesling Hérzu and the Alta Langa DOCG sparkling that has become the winery's second signature. The cellar at Località Cerretta hosts visits, tastings and a panoramic terrace looking over Prapò.
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Piedmont
- Est. 1856
- 5 wines
- Tastings
- Tours
- Accommodation
- Booking required
Wines from Ettore Germano
Experiences at Ettore Germano
Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.
A Jump into Alta Langa
Five-glass focus on the Alta Langa estate at Cigliè: still whites and Metodo Classico sparkling drawn from limestone soils at altitude. Tasting includes a guided cellar visit.
Book this experienceNebbiolo 360°
Six-wine Barolo focus that walks through the Comune di Serralunga d'Alba blend and the single-vineyard Cerretta, Prapò, Vignarionda and Lazzarito to show how cru changes the same grape. Tasting includes a guided cellar visit.
Book this experienceThe Classic
A five-wine flight that runs from the Alta Langa whites to two Barolos, framed as a survey of the estate's range. Tasting includes a guided cellar visit at Località Cerretta.
Book this experienceAbout Ettore Germano
The Germano family has worked these vineyards since 1856. Sergio's great-grandfather Francesco and his grandfather Alberto were grape growers, selling fruit to the cooperatives and to neighbours making wine for their own tables. The shift to bottling under their own name came in the 1970s, when Sergio's father Ettore, the founder of the brand, started the formal winery in 1975 and produced the first hectolitres for friends and private customers.
Sergio Germano took over in the 1980s after finishing oenology school in Alba and stints at three respected Langhe estates. The first 5,000 bottles of Barolo, Dolcetto and Barbera went to market in 1988, and from 1993 every grape grown by the family was vinified and bottled in-house. That decade also marked the family's most consequential planting: in 1995, on a slope in Cigliè in the Alta Langa, Sergio set out the first parcels of Chardonnay and Riesling for the still and sparkling whites that now share the label with the Barolos.
The Serralunga side now covers ten hectares across Cerretta, Prapò, Lazzarito and a half hectare of Vigna Rionda inherited through Sergio's mother Rosanna in 2010. The Cigliè side covers nine hectares at altitude, where cooler air and limestone soils suit Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling Hérzu. Both estates feed a Barolo line that runs from the Comune di Serralunga d'Alba blend through the single-vineyard Cerretta, Prapò, Vignarionda and Lazzarito Riserva.
Vineyard work runs to about 800 hours per hectare, ninety per cent of it by hand. Cover crops between the rows, manual mowing on the steeper slopes, pheromone confusion in place of insecticide and green manure with beans and grains underpin the conversion to organic farming. The cellar matches the field discipline: pneumatic pressing, gentle pumping, an in-house lab, and stelvin closures on selected whites to keep sulphite additions low.
Sergio runs the day-to-day with his wife Elena, who oversees administration and hospitality at the Cerretta cellar. Their son Elia, born in 1998, is the fourth generation working the vines, alongside his sister Maria, also an oenology graduate. The winery is a member of the Viticoltura Armoniosa sustainable-viticulture programme and an Associated estate of the Strada del Barolo.
Visiting Ettore Germano
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Tastings
Available
Tours
Available
Accommodation
Not available
Booking
Required
Plan your visit
Località Cerretta, 1, 12050 Serralunga d'Alba, Cuneo (Piemonte)
Plate I · PIEDMONT
Ettore Germano on the Piedmont wine atlas
What Ettore Germano makes
Ettore Germano's current bottle selection is led by Barolo DOCG. The clearest grape signal comes from Nebbiolo and Barbera.
Denominations
Key grapes
Common questions
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Ettore Germano is based at Località Cerretta 1, Serralunga d'Alba, in the Barolo zone of Piedmont. The winery also farms a second estate in Cigliè in the Alta Langa, about 70 kilometres south, for its white and sparkling production.
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