Ettore Germano Barolo!

SO SO happy to have Germano Barolo back on the shelf (and in the cellar)! We have both his general appellation Barolo ($57) and the single vineyard Prapo ($88) – both from 2018 vintage. We opened the “regular” Barolo for our Piedmont class this past Sunday and it’s anything but regular!! Snag yours before we take it all home ourselves! And without further ado here’s the Germano story…

Sergio Germano’s winery is a few minutes walk north of the famed Piedmont village of Serralunga. He completed six years of study at the School of Enology in Alba, then made wine for a few years at Fontanafredda, one of the larger wineries in the area, and then returned to the family estate in 1993. The winery is still named after Ettore, Sergio’s father, who grew grapes and made a little wine for private customers. Great wine is always made in the vineyard, and Sergio does much of the fieldwork himself, with the help of his wife Elena and a small crew. In the winery they honor tradition but also bring a bit of modern finesse — using some smaller barrels. There is a lovely elegance to their wines that makes for youthful enjoyment, but they will only improve with time in the cellar. 

Description of Prapo from his importer: “Prapò is a small vineyard, directly below Sergio’s house and cellar. The oldest vines in Prapò were planted in 1967 by Sergio’s father, with some sections replanted more recently. The Barolo from this vineyard is one of my favorites in the whole appellation. (Ian d’Agata says ‘Prapò is the cru on the eastern flank of Serralunga that I believe to be a grand cru for Nebbiolo.’) It shows aromas and flavors of red-currants, dark chocolate (this is not related to oak, and is a typical Serralunga note, Sergio tells me), sandalwood, true cinnamon, licorice and tar; in structure it is chewy yet still elegant, and it ages incomparably.”