Bricco Asili Ceretto

The Ceretto brothers – Bruno, manager, and Marcello, chief winemaker – are among the most enterprising producers of Piedmont, as their sterling international reputation shows. Over the decades they phased out their old family winery in Alba to focus on production at three estates with headquarters at their splendid La Bernardina villa on the edge of town. The loquacious Bruno Ceretto explains how the company philosophy evolved from thinking big to thinking small. “When we were a patriarchal wine house and bought all our grapes from growers, we had little control over quality,” he recalls. “So we began buying or leasing vineyards in the best areas, because it’s clear that to make great wine you have to grow your own grapes.” Their first acquisition was Bricco Asili, a jewel of a domain on the edge of a knoll with some of the most privileged vineyards of Barbaresco. Bricco Asili has its own cellars and 8 hectares of vines for Barbaresco called Bricco Asili (from the choicest plot), Faset and Bernardot. Next came Bricco Rocche, source of a Barolo of the mane, which is among the most esteemed and expensive wines of the appellation. Each property is operated independently with winemakers supercides by Marcello Ceretto and advised by Donato Lanati, but encouraged to bring out the individual nature of each terrain. Although Barolo Bricco Rocche is the showcase wine, some prefer Barbaresco Bricco Asili as an exquisite example of the Ceretto touch that accents the inherent grace of Nebbiolo over sheer power. Ceretto produces single-vineyard versions of the Alba DOCs of Barbera, Dolcetto and Nebbiolo, as well as Langhe Arneis. But the brothers’ main focus seems to be on wines from international varieties grown at the creative center of La Bernardina: Langhe DOC Chardonnay and Monsordo Rosso, from Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Merlot with enough Nebbiolo to give it Piedmontese roots.