Giovanni Rosso

The Rosso family has cultivated vineyards in Serralunga d'Alba since the late nineteenth century, working only in red wine and primarily with Nebbiolo. In the early 1980s, Giovanni Rosso restructured the family's plots for quality over quantity. Their son Davide Rosso, trained as an oenologist with formative experience in Burgundy (Domaines Jean Grivot and Denis Mortet) plus stints in Alsace and Champagne, took over the vinification in 2001. He modernised the cellar without compromising the traditional approach in the vineyard.

Around a dozen hectares across some of Serralunga's most prized sites - La Serra, Broglio, Damiano, Cerretta, Sorano, and most importantly Vigna Rionda. Several of these Rosso family parcels (including Vigna Rionda) appear in a document dated May 1694. The specific 0.85-hectare plot at the historic heart of the Vigna Rionda cru had been farmed by Tommaso Canale, Ester Canale Rosso's father, and came to Giovanni Rosso through that family line in April 2011, following Tommaso's death the previous December. Davide and Ester initially bottled small Tommaso reserves from 2007 through 2009, around a thousand bottles a year, before the estate became the formal steward.

Philosophy is Serralunga-traditional: wine should be a perfect copy of its terroir. Long macerations, long élevage in large Slavonian botti, no barrique on the top Nebbiolos, no winemaker signature over the vineyard's voice. The core Barolos:

• Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba - the village blend, the everyday wine
• Barolo Serra - single cru
• Barolo Cerretta - single cru
• Barolo Vigna Rionda Ester Canale Rosso - the flagship, named for Davide's mother

Also Barbera d'Alba, Langhe Nebbiolo, and Roero Arneis. Davide extended the work to Sicily in 2016, acquiring a fourteen-hectare estate in Contrada Montedolce (Castiglione di Sicilia, Mount Etna) planted to Nerello Mascalese and Carricante. In 2023 he added a two-hectare plot in Contrada Pietra Marina, one of Etna's emblematic white-wine sites, now the source of the Ester Canale Rosso Pietra Marina Etna Bianco from Carricante - a volcanic-soil counterpoint to the austere Serralunga Nebbiolos.

Under Davide, Giovanni Rosso has risen from solid local estate to top-tier Serralunga reference. The Vigna Rionda Ester Canale Rosso is now among the most collectable bottles from the commune.