The story of Fratelli Cigliuti unfolds across four generations. The name itself comes from Renato’s father and uncle, who until 1964 sold grapes and unbottled wine on the local market, long before estate-bottled Barbaresco was common. Renato’s grandfather, his father Leone, and his uncle Romualdo passed down the traditional craft of winemaking to Renato and his wife Dina, and today to their daughters Claudia and Silvia. Renato Cigliuti joined the family business at a young age and went on to carry it forward while reshaping its philosophy.

He firmly believed that the soils of the Langhe were capable of producing wines of great quality, depth, and longevity. In the difficult postwar years, when abundance was scarce, Renato began thinning his grape yields in pursuit of concentration—an almost unthinkable practice at the time, embraced by only a handful of producers. Neighbours shook their heads and called him mad. Renato’s response was simple: “one cannot have quantity and quality at the same time”, so he chose quality. For him, this quality had to be captured in the bottle. In 1964, that belief found its expression with the release of his first 300 bottles of Barbaresco, marking the estate’s pivotal transformation from farmer to producer.

Renato continued making wine throughout the 1970s, even as this corner of the Barbaresco production zone was largely abandoned. Many farmers and winegrowers chose instead to migrate to nearby industrial towns, seeking the security of factory work, abandoning their land.

“I stayed here in the country because the land gives me security, and leaving it would be like leaving my family. I feel as if it’s part of me. When the seasons change its character and its colours, and the snow blankets and buries it, and when the sun uncovers it again and it reemerges in all its beauty – it’s then that I can feel it breathing.”

Even today, the F.lli Cigliuti winery, nestled in the rolling hills of the Serraboella hamlet in Neive, is a family-run winery employing four people: Renato, his wife Dina, and their daughters Claudia and Silvia, who directly oversee all production processes from start to finish. They spend most of their time in their magnificent vineyards, which they tend with great dedication, despite Serraboella’s steep slopes. For them, it is precisely from the vineyard that great wines are produced, capable of reflecting the characteristics of the vintage and the identity of the terroir where they are grown.