Storia
Origins of the family business
The Ceretto wine business originated in Alba in the 1930s. Riccardo Ceretto, whose family came from Valdivilla in Santo Stefano Belbo, initially made wine from purchased grapes because he owned no vineyards. His son Bruno joined him in 1957, initially working on the commercial side, and Marcello entered the business in 1961. The brothers then began identifying and purchasing distinguished vineyards in the Langhe and Roero, placing ownership of land and the character of individual vineyards at the centre of the family’s approach.
Establishment at Monsordo Bernardina
In the late 1980s, the Ceretto family chose an old farmstead outside Alba and gradually converted it into its headquarters. The current family chronology dates the move to Monsordo Bernardina to 1989. Within a few years, the estate became the operational centre of the business, bringing together production and maturation for several established labels, administrative and commercial departments, offices and warehousing.
The principal building itself dates to 1850. Its restrained, substantial architecture later became the historical counterpoint for the estate’s contemporary additions. The name Monsordo Bernardina is associated with the love story of Vittorio Emanuele II and Rosa Vercellana, remembered as Bella Rosina.
The ampelographic experiments of the 1990s
During the 1990s, the estate underwent significant changes in its vineyard composition. International cultivars were planted beside traditional Piedmontese varieties so that the family could observe how each performed and expressed itself under local conditions. The varieties were initially vinified separately. In 1997, the best-adapted cultivars—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah—were brought together in the Monsordo Rosso project. They continued to be made separately, matured in wood and blended in proportions adjusted to each vintage.
The third generation and reduced intervention
In 1999, Lisa, Roberta, Alessandro and Federico—the children of Bruno and Marcello—joined the family company. Alessandro arrived after oenology school and experience in wineries in Australia, California, France and South Africa. Seeking a clearer expression of the Langhe, he progressively reduced intervention in both vineyard and cellar. In 2008, experimentation began with fermenting the family’s hilltop vineyards without selected yeasts, using a pied de cuve to initiate fermentation. The wider cellar approach also progressively reduced the use of new wood.
Architecture, organic farming and hospitality
In 2009, L’Acino, or The Grape, opened at Monsordo Bernardina. The futuristic, bubble-like platform was placed above the Langa landscape and connected to the barrel cellars by dimly illuminated corridors. It formed part of a new reception area devoted to welcoming visitors and presenting the region. The same year also marked the adoption of biodynamic principles in a substantial proportion of the family vineyards.
Conversion of all Ceretto vineyards to organic agriculture began in 2010. That year, an old cottage overlooking the Monsordo Bernardina vineyards was converted into the Artist’s House, a high-ceilinged loft where visiting artists could live and work within the Langhe landscape.
In 2012, La Serra opened in the lower farmstead at Monsordo Bernardina as an extension of the Piazza Duomo project. From the 2015 vintage, all Ceretto wines obtained organic certification. Wine Trekking followed in 2018, allowing visitors to experience the agricultural approach while walking through the Monsordo vineyards.
Recent artistic additions
Francesco Clemente created LOVE in 2019. In the first months of 2024, the work was installed at the estate: two mirrored female figures cast in bronze, each approximately 4.5 metres high and crowned with a cloud-shaped head. Their reciprocal gaze explores self-image, affirmation and the fragmented self.
Terroir
Monsordo Bernardina lies on the outskirts of Alba in the Langhe, with more than 30 hectares of vines surrounding its historic farmstead. The vineyard mosaic combines traditional Piedmontese grapes with international cultivars introduced during the estate’s ampelographic experiments of the 1990s.
The Nebbiolo vineyards around the farmstead adjoin the Barolo area and share its soils and climatic conditions. Their fruit is identified with Nebbiolo d’Alba DOC. The estate’s local environment also proved capable of giving Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah a recognisably Langa character after the varieties had been tested through several years of separate vinification.
Within the estate’s immediate Alba holdings, Rossana is an established place-name associated with Dolcetto, while Piana is devoted to Barbera. The Bernardina sector supplies Nebbiolo. Detailed elevations, exposures, geological profiles and climatic measurements for these individual Alba parcels are not defined.
Vinificazione
Monsordo Bernardina’s vineyards form part of Ceretto’s certified-organic farming programme. Conversion of all family vineyards began in 2010, and certification was obtained from the 2015 vintage.
The approach is based on vineyard health beginning with living, balanced soil. Herbicides, synthetic crop-protection products and fertilisers were progressively eliminated. Green manure is sown between rows to provide natural fertility, improve soil structure and encourage biodiversity. Alternate-row cultivation is used to limit compaction.
Protection against downy mildew and powdery mildew relies on minimal quantities of copper and sulphur, while natural pyrethrum is used against insects. Biodynamic preparations 500 and 501—horn manure and horn silica—are dynamised before application, together with other homeopathic preparations intended to improve soil vitality and stimulate photosynthesis. Manure compost is matured in piles and inoculated with biodynamic preparations.
A substantial share of the wider vineyard holdings has followed biodynamic principles since the 2009 vintage, although the declared certification is organic. Vineyard trials are assessed over long periods: results may not become visible in an age-worthy bottled wine until seven and a half years after harvest, and the family allows at least fifteen years to consolidate conclusions.
Monsordo Bernardina is the main production, maturation and logistical centre for several of the family’s established labels. Its facilities include barrel-ageing cellars opening from the dimly illuminated corridors that lead toward L’Acino, along with warehousing and the company’s administrative and commercial departments.
The broader cellar philosophy is one of progressive subtraction. Since 2008, fermentations for the family’s hilltop vineyards have been initiated without selected yeasts through a pied de cuve. Fermentation and skin maceration consequently proceed together for about 20 days, while the carbon dioxide generated by fermentation naturally protects the must. Over approximately two decades, the use of new wood has also been progressively reduced to avoid covering varietal and vineyard aromas with oak-derived aroma or tannin.
Processes vary according to the material. Dolcetto from Rossana is handled entirely in stainless steel, with deliberately short macerations to restrain its naturally vigorous tannin. Piana Barbera is also vinified in stainless steel to preserve freshness and aromatic clarity. Bernardina Nebbiolo ferments in steel and matures in used wood. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah are vinified separately, aged in wood and then blended in proportions adapted to the vintage.
Filosofia
The Ceretto family describes terroir as the interaction of soil, climate, vineyard position and the people who cultivate the vines. Its objective is to accompany a wine rather than force it toward a predetermined style, creating the conditions in which the character of each place can emerge.
This philosophy treats healthy soil as the basis of a healthy vine and draws inspiration from Steiner’s ideas of natural balance and biodiversity. Organic conversion, green manures, biodynamic preparations and reduced cellar intervention are presented as parts of a long-term process rather than a fixed recipe.
The family deliberately resists temporary oenological fashions—including conspicuous barrique character, concentration or sweetness—when they obscure identity. Experiments are judged over many vintages rather than adopted for immediate effect. Collective family decision-making is combined with respect for specialist expertise, while environmental work, hospitality, gastronomy, architecture and contemporary art are all understood as ways of cultivating and presenting the Langhe.