The Weight of a Name
Elio Germano, Ettore Germano, Serralunga d'Alba
The winery is named after a man who never quite finished what he started.
Ettore Germano grew grapes on the Cerretta hill in Serralunga d'Alba — the same hill his family had farmed since 1856. He dreamed of putting his name on a bottle. He began, tentatively. His son Sergio made the complete break in 1993, bottling the entire production himself for the first time, at twenty-eight years old, his father still alive but already in declining health. Ettore died in 2005. The winery carries his name. The dream was completed by someone else, in the years his father could still see the cellar from his window.
When I visited, I sat with Elio — Sergio's son, the fifth generation, now working alongside his father. He is building something of his own inside the estate: a thousand bottles of Dolcetto. Not Barolo. Not the wine the critics come for. Something small enough for one person to hold accountable. Something chosen.
I asked him why Dolcetto. He said: because it's mine.
The name above the door belongs to a man who dreamed it. The cellar beneath it belongs to the son who built it. The thousand bottles of Dolcetto belong to the grandson, who is figuring out what belonging means.
The Germano family has farmed Cerretta since 1856. Elio is the fifth generation
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Ettore Germano S.S.A.
Località Cerretta, 1
12050 Serralunga d'Alba (CN)
Piemonte Italy
Tel +39 0173 613528
Email: info@ettoregermano.com
Instagram: ettoregermano
