The Ceretto winery was founded in the 1930s. Riccardo Ceretto owned no vineyards and made wine from grapes he bought in. The turning point came when his sons Bruno and Marcello joined the business with an idea that was innovative for the time: the importance of owning the land. As obvious as that may seem today, memories of rural poverty in the Langhe, vividly described by Beppe Fenoglio in his novel "La Malora" ("Ruin"), were still fresh, and Riccardo was reluctant to invest in land.
