When UNESCO added the vineyard landscape of Langhe-Roero to the list of World Heritage Sites in 2014, we saw this as confirmation of an insight that had revealed itself more than half a century earlier. The Ceretto winery was founded in the 1930s: Riccardo Ceretto, who did not own any vineyards, produced wine from grapes he purchased. The turning point came when his sons Bruno and Marcello joined the business, with their innovative thinking for the time: the importance of the soil.
Though this seems obvious today, memories of the poverty of rural life in the Langhe region - described so well by Beppe Fenoglio in his novel “La Malora” (“Ruin”) - were still fresh, and Riccardo was reluctant to invest in purchasing land. But Bruno and Marcello had the vineyards of Burgundy in mind, which had been producing excellent wines for over a century thanks to a model that considered the characteristics of each vineyard - the French word cru is still used today. In the 1960s, Bruno and Marcello started mapping out the land that produced the best wines, and buying the vineyards. They would never leave the region again: 2020 was Marcello’s sixtieth grape harvest and he spent it in the vineyards, among the rows of vines that he knows so well, picking grapes and chatting with his fellow harvesters about the rain, the scorching heat, problems affecting the vines, staying out in the countryside until it was time to take the crates full of grapes back to the cellar.
The land that Bruno and Marcello have handed down to their children has been masterfully preserved. With dreams of Burgundy well in the past, our vineyards now stand as a model in the eyes of the world. And so we are looking to the future: our family is a group with a shared vision, we make decisions together, guided by respect for expertise: we give those who have something to contribute - to the company, and to the territory - the tools to achieve that vision.
Every single project we undertake bears our genetic imprint and expresses the same values. Everything is culture: from award-winning gastronomy at Piazza Duomo to traditional Piedmontese cuisine at La Piola, and our art projects. The Chapel by Sol Lewitt and David Tremlett, in a Barolo Brunate vineyard at La Morra, places art in an agricultural landscape, elevating and celebrating it: there is an educational element, not direction from above but contamination from below. The same applies to our pursuit of environmental sustainability in the vineyards and in the cellars: we do not think of ourselves as being in competition with other wine producers, but we take pride in proving that even when you cultivate many hectares you can still respect the environment. Our mission is to open up new paths.