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Ferdinando Principiano is the driving force behind the winery. He is an energetic and affable with tremendous enthusiasm. The family began purchasing vineyard plots in the beginning of the twentieth century. His father, Americo Principiano, inherited vineyards in the commune of Serralunga d’Alba and founded the winery in the 1950’s. Later, while other families were trading hillside parcels in exchange for flatter plots that were good for growing grain, the Principiano family continued purchasing hillside parcels, realizing that their grapes attracted big-name buyers, selling fruit to Prunotto and Ceretto, only to name a few. Seeing how other wineries produced great wine from fruit from their vineyards, the young Ferdinando Principiano began to get the inspiration to make great wines himself and so he began his studies at oenology school in Alba.
Today the estate comprises four vineyards totaling 10 hectares producing about 35,000 bottles per year. The winery was totally refurbished some ten years ago. Ferdinando is responsible for the vinification and aging of the wines with the assistance of consulting oenologist Giuseppe Caviola, while his father Americo tends to the vineyards. Ferdinando would often clash with his father in an attempt to make better wines. He was an early adherent to using barriques/small oak barrels, however starting with the 2004 vintage, Ferdinando began a change in his wine making philosophy by dramatically reducing yields (by almost 40%) and eliminating the use of new French oak. This leads to more structured wines, with greater complexity of tannins and intensity of aromas. In the vineyards, he has removed chemical plant foods, weed killers, dessicating agents, and chemical anti-mold treatments. Today he uses only natural yeasts. He seeks to harvest between 8 hundred grams to 1.5kg per plant of grapes. He conducts his alcoholic fermentation without temperature controls attempting to work in an environmentally sustainable manner in harmony with nature and conducts manual punch downs during the fermentation process. Principiano is part of a “new wave” of young winemakers attempting to make wines more tied to the traditions of the region than the previous generation which sought to implement more modern French methods to the wines of the Langhe. Principiano now ages his Barolo Serralunga in 2 to 3 year old French oak barrels and uses large foudres for aging his Barolo “Boscareto”. While developing his own style, his style seeks to approach that of the traditionalist school of long fermentations and aging in large foudres for his premium wines as opposed to the smaller new oak barrels that were so much in vogue in the 1980s and 1990s.
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