Rivella Serafino

Rivella Serafino is a tiny grower estate on Barbaresco's Montestefano hill, where the Rivella family has held land for centuries. The vineyard was first planted by Serafino Rivella in 1963 (first vintage 1967) and is now farmed by his son Teobaldo with his wife Maria, working a small plot of Nebbiolo immediately around the family house and treating it, in Teobaldo's words, as a private garden. Teobaldo's cousin Guido was Angelo Gaja's longtime oenologist across Barbaresco and Barolo for some 47 years until retiring in 2014, and the two still share a courtyard in Montestefano - context that travels with every Serafino bottle. Farming has been organic from the start, on close to a metre of active limestone over clay and tufo - more calcium than any other Barbaresco cru, by Polaner's account. The cellar is resolutely traditional, with 3-4 week macerations and 30-40 months in botti grande, and annual output around 1,000 cases split between Barbaresco Montestefano and, since 2019, a Langhe Nebbiolo that replaced the historic Dolcetto plot.