Adriano

Tenant-farming roots

The Adriano family’s agricultural history begins in the early 1900s, when Giuseppe Adriano and his wife Teresa worked as tenant farmers. Giuseppe began cultivating vines, laying the foundation for the family’s winegrowing tradition. Their son Aldo later joined the enterprise.

Alongside winegrowing, the family began cultivating its own hazelnut groves in 1945 on the hills around Alba and in the commune of Neive.

1968: the first family property

The decisive change from tenant farming came in 1968, when the family acquired its first property at San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, in Alba. Aldo and his wife Maddalena developed the farm, and Aldo planted new vines together with Giuseppe. Renzo and Rosa, the parents of Luciana, also contributed to the family enterprise, sharing their agricultural experience alongside Aldo and Maddalena.

The 1990s and the creation of the winery

Marco and Vittorio, Aldo’s sons, entered the business during the 1990s with their wives Luciana and Grazia. They improved production and commercial organisation and began a significant expansion in international markets.

The 1994 harvest marked the formal beginning of Adriano Marco e Vittorio as an estate winery. Marco, Vittorio, Grazia and Luciana, supported by the older generations, decided to vinify the family’s own grapes and released the first bottles bearing the Adriano label. This established a complete estate-controlled chain based exclusively on fruit grown in the family’s vineyards.

Vineyard development and Basarin

In 2000, the family vinified its first Barbaresco from Basarin, the additional geographical mention in Neive. Basarin subsequently became a central part of the estate’s Barbaresco production, including a Riserva drawn from a selected hectare in the heart of the vineyard and made only in selected vintages.

A broader agricultural estate

The family continued to operate as a mixed farm rather than a vineyard monoculture. The present 50-hectare holding comprises 30 hectares of vines, 10 hectares of hazelnut groves and 10 hectares of woodland or fallow ground. Its viticultural holdings encompass sites in San Rocco Seno d’Elvio and Neive, while the wooded areas support the family’s longstanding interest in mushrooms and truffles.

In 2011, the winery became a member of the Corilanga cooperative, to which it delivers its hazelnuts. Marco and Vittorio continued to supervise the hazelnut cycle personally, from cultivation and selection at harvest through drying, storage and sale.

Michela Adriano and international development

Michela, Vittorio and Grazia’s daughter, joined the business full-time in 2014 and began working alongside Grazia as export manager. Her first personally developed export market was Singapore, which she visited in November 2014. Her subsequent work included maintaining established international relationships and developing new markets in Asia, North America and elsewhere.

Sustainability and social initiatives

The estate stopped using chemical herbicides and later strengthened this approach by joining The Green Experience, a collective, integrated sustainability certification for Piemonte producers. Its wines are described as originating from integrated pest-management farming. The family has also belonged to the Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti for more than a decade, reflecting its control of the cycle from vineyard cultivation through vinification, bottling and sale.

Around 2021, the estate joined 8pari, a therapeutic and employment project for people in vulnerable circumstances. An 8pari team subsequently began working with the estate every Friday in both the vineyards and cellar. The collaboration produced a Barbera d’Alba Superiore and a Barbaresco Basarin associated with the social project; the latter was presented in 2023.

New vines were planted in March 2022. The same year brought an exceptionally compressed harvest: picking began in the final week of August and ended one month and two days later, with Nebbiolo harvested in the final week of September rather than late October. Heat and drought produced smaller berries and lower yields, while temperature changes late in the season helped preserve acidity.

Vittorio’s legacy

Vittorio Adriano died on 24 May 2022. The family continued to commemorate him through an annual gathering centred on wine, food and football. In spring 2025, the 2022 vintage of Barbera d’Alba Superiore became the first release to carry the name Tòiu, Vittorio’s nickname among friends. The dedication connects the wine with the conviviality for which he was remembered: welcoming people into the cellar, sharing what he had and offering a smile even when there was little else to share.

Thirty years of estate bottling

In 2024, the family celebrated 30 years since the first Adriano-labelled vintage. Celebrations began with a trade event for restaurateurs at the end of June and continued with a public gathering at the winery in July.

The 2024 growing season was marked by heavy rainfall, in sharp contrast to the preceding dry conditions. The resulting wines were assessed within the family as fresher, finer and more elegant, with unusually moderate alcohol levels reminiscent of vintages from the 1980s. After fermentation, the younger Dolcetto and Barbera wines were scheduled for spring bottling, while Barbaresco and the more structured wines continued their progression from cask to bottle.

The estate lies in the Langhe, with its main base at San Rocco Seno d’Elvio in the commune of Alba and additional vineyards in Neive. The documented sites occupy hillside, mid-slope and lower-slope positions between approximately 250 and 300 metres above sea level. Exposures include east, west, southeast and southwest, allowing the estate to work with markedly different orientations.

Two principal geological formations recur across the holdings. The Formazioni di Lequio consist of grey marl alternating with sandy layers. They occur in several sites around San Rocco Seno d’Elvio and support Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Barbera, Moscato Bianco, Sauvignon Blanc and other white-grape plantings. The Marne di Sant’Agata comprise marl strata containing silt and clay. These soils characterise the Basarin holding in Neive as well as lower-slope Freisa, rosé-spumante and some Barbera vineyards.

Basarin is a sunny, southeast-facing additional geographical mention in Neive at about 300 metres. The Sanadaive vineyards, identified as the Rizzi and Rocche Massalupo crus, lie on southwest-facing hills at San Rocco Seno d’Elvio at about 280 metres. Other estate vineyards around the winery range from well-ventilated sites at 300 metres to lower-slope parcels at 250 metres.

Woodland forms an integral part of the property. Ten hectares are woodland or fallow land, and the San Rocco Seno d’Elvio holding includes vegetation favourable to mushrooms, Tartufo Bianco d’Alba and black truffles. Replanting of oak, other Quercus trees, lime and poplar supports this wooded environment. The family also describes San Rocco Seno d’Elvio as having a cool, damp microclimate, illustrated by abundant moss in winter.

The 30 hectares of vineyards are cultivated for estate production, and only grapes grown by the family are vinified. Harvesting is manual across the documented vineyard groups, beginning with early September white varieties and extending through mid-October for Barbaresco; the late-harvest Satifol parcel is picked in the second ten days of November.

Farming follows integrated pest-management principles and participates in The Green Experience, a collective, integrated sustainability certification for Piemonte winegrowers. Chemical herbicides have been excluded for almost a decade, and the estate’s stated objective is clean farming that respects the land while producing healthy, high-quality fruit.

Manual canopy work includes shoot thinning, removal of secondary shoots, an initial selection of leaves and shoot positioning between the wires. These operations select the appropriate shoots, remove excess foliage and improve the passage of air and light around the bunches. The family connects this work directly with balanced ripening. Green pruning is also used to maintain vine balance as bunches develop.

Winter work includes pruning, removal of cut canes and tying. Marco preserves the traditional practice of tying canes with willow shoots and has taught the method to Michela. New and old vineyards are handled individually; vines planted in March 2022 were already included in the tying programme the following spring.

Post-harvest fertilisation is used to help vines restore energy after stressful seasons. Woodland management extends the environmental approach beyond the vines: oak, other Quercus species, lime and poplar are replanted to maintain the wooded habitat associated with mushrooms and truffles.

The 2022 season required active management of heat and drought. Harvest ran without the normal pauses between varieties, from the last week of August until late September. In 2023, prolonged drought was followed by slow, beneficial rain; rapid grass and shoot growth then required particularly careful vegetation management. In the wetter 2024 season, the principal challenge was humidity, managed in part through canopy balance and green pruning.

The cellar is divided into dedicated areas for vinification, maturation and storage, allowing the family to retain control from its own vineyards through bottling. The vinification room contains temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks used for fermentation and storage. The maturation room contains large Slavonian oak casks of 30–50 hl. A newer underground bottle-ageing cellar was constructed from Langa stone and reclaimed bricks; its naturally suitable temperature is used for ageing bottled wines.

Red grapes are generally crushed and destemmed immediately after harvest. Fermentations are spontaneous in temperature-controlled stainless steel. Documented temperatures range from 24–25°C for Dolcetto and Barbera, 25–26°C for Freisa and Langhe Nebbiolo, and 27–28°C for Barbaresco. The lighter reds are racked after approximately one week or eight days, while Barbera Superiore remains on the skins for about ten days. Barbaresco undergoes submerged-cap maceration: approximately 20 days for the standard wines and about 30 days for the selected Riserva. Malolactic fermentation occurs spontaneously in stainless steel.

Cold stabilisation is used for several reds; the Barbaresco protocols specify natural cold stabilisation. Dolcetto and the younger Barbera are bottled in April and receive about nine months in bottle. Freisa and Langhe Nebbiolo are bottled near the end of summer and then age for approximately eight months in bottle. Barbera Superiore spends about six months in 30–50 hl oak casks followed by about nine months in bottle. Standard Barbaresco spends about 12 months in large oak and a further nine months in bottle. Basarin Riserva receives about 24 months in large oak and another 18 months in bottle.

White grapes are softly pressed, with selection of the free-run must. Dry white fermentations take place in stainless steel under reductive conditions at approximately 15–16°C and may continue for about one month. Ageing on fine lees with bâtonnage is used; one protocol specifies approximately six months. After filtration, bottling takes place between May and June, followed by roughly eight months of bottle ageing.

For Moscato d’Asti, softly pressed free-run must ferments in an autoclave at 15–16°C until it reaches approximately 4–5% alcohol and about 2 bar pressure. Cooling to 0°C stops fermentation, after which the wine is filtered and bottled.

The rosé sparkling-wine method keeps whole bunches in the press for several hours of cryomaceration. Soft pressing selects only the free-run must, which ferments in steel at about 15–16°C. Secondary fermentation follows the Martinotti, or Charmat, method, with bâtonnage on fine lees.

Late-harvest production varies with the vintage. Grapes may over-ripen either on the vine or in crates and are then softly pressed. Fermentation in stainless steel at approximately 15–16°C is deliberately long and slow. Maturation may take place entirely in stainless steel or, depending on the year, in an equal combination of wood and stainless-steel vessels.

Adriano Marco e Vittorio is organised around a family-controlled chain: cultivation of its own grapes, vinification, maturation, bottling and direct presentation of the finished wines. Its declared goal is to make wines that interpret the terroir of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio and Neive rather than detach production from the land.

The family describes its work through commitment, respect and continuity between people, vineyards and wine. Tradition is expressed through practices such as manual work, tying with willow shoots, spontaneous fermentations and large oak casks, while temperature-controlled tanks and a purpose-built underground bottle cellar provide technical control where needed.

Environmental responsibility extends beyond the vineyard. Avoidance of herbicides, participation in The Green Experience, integrated pest management, maintenance of woodland and replanting of trees form part of a broader commitment to preserving the landscape and supporting diversified, sustainable tourism and environmental education.

Membership in FIVI reflects the principle that every stage should remain in the hands of the independent winegrower. The resulting relationship between grower and consumer is framed in terms of trust, connection and respect. Hospitality, events and tastings are treated as extensions of the same chain, allowing the people who cultivate and make the wine to present it directly.

Collaboration is another stated principle. The estate participates in networks concerned with local identity, Freisa, the Albeisa bottle, environmental stewardship, wine education, young producers and social inclusion. The 8pari project brings a therapeutic employment team into regular vineyard and cellar work, connecting production with equal opportunity and social participation.