Italy · Langhe

San Silvestro

Four-generation Langhe family producer in Novello, making Barolo, a Cortese Gavi, and a dried-grape Barbera that has no close parallel in Piedmont.

The producer

San Silvestro is a family winery in Novello, a village inside the Barolo denomination in the Langhe hills of Piemonte. The Sartirano family has been making and selling wine in the Langhe since 1871, and cousins Paolo and Guido Sartirano now run the business across four generations. What gives the house its shape is a deliberate accumulation of territory: three estates, with vineyards in Barolo, Novello, and Monforte d'Alba, and a range that moves from young Piemonte DOC bottles through an organic-labelled tier to Barolo at the top.

The company's centre is Tenuta Ghercina, acquired in 2002, where the Sartiranos built a 5,000-square-metre cellar into the hillside so a working vineyard sits above it. The estate is southwest-facing at 360 metres, three kilometres from Barolo castle, with more than 15,000 hectolitres of storage below ground. San Silvestro also grows Favorita and Nas-cëtta, two locally adapted white varieties tied specifically to Novello and rarely seen elsewhere in the Langhe.

Known for

Barolo from the Ghercina estate and a Barbera Appassimento made by drying Barbera grapes on racks before pressing, applying a Veneto technique to a Piedmontese grape with no close regional parallel.

Notable facts

The story

The Name on the Bottle

In the autumn of 1946, Pietro and Giovanni Sartirano relaunched wine sales under their own name. Postwar Piedmont was not an easy market: distribution networks were fractured, most small producers sold bulk wine to merchants who bottled it under house names, and there was no obvious commercial reason for a Langhe family to go to the expense of labelling under their own name. The Sartiranos did it anyway, choosing San Silvestro as the name. They built a simple label and began distributing.

From the atlas

San Silvestro

At A Glance

The Producer

San Silvestro is a family winery in Novello, a village sitting inside the Barolo denomination in the Langhe hills of Piemonte. The Sartirano family has been making and selling wine in the Langhe since 1871, and cousins Paolo and Guido Sartirano now run the business across four generations of family involvement. What gives the house its particular shape is not a single vineyard or one landmark bottle but a deliberate accumulation of territory: three estates gathered over two decades, with vineyards in Barolo, Novello, and Monforte d'Alba, and a range that moves from young, fresh Piemonte DOC bottles through an organic-labelled tier to Barolo and a dried-grape Barbera that sits well outside regional convention.

The company's operational centre is Tenuta Ghercina, acquired in 2002, where the Sartiranos built a new 5,000-square-metre cellar into the hillside so that a working vineyard sits on its roof. That physical detail is a good introduction to how the house thinks: the land comes first, and the cellar fits around it.

Place

Novello is a small commune in the southern Langhe, part of the eleven-village Barolo DOCG zone. At this latitude, Nebbiolo grown on the calcareous Helvetian soils of the Barolo hills ripens to a depth that demands long ageing, and the appellation rules reflect that: Barolo must spend a minimum of 38 months before release, with at least 18 in oak. Novello sits on the southwestern edge of the zone, where the soils carry more sand and the wines tend toward earlier-drinking character relative to the Serralunga d'Alba or Castiglione Falletto side.

The Ghercina estate is southwest-facing at 360 metres above sea level, a position that accumulates afternoon sun while retaining the cool nights that keep Nebbiolo's acidity intact. The estate also contains Lago della Ghercina, a small natural lake whose presence moderates temperature and humidity across the surrounding parcels. Tenuta Arnulfo Costa di Bussia, the family's second estate, lies in Monforte d'Alba, three kilometres from Barolo castle, in soil considered among the most demanding in the denomination for producing wines with grip and ageing potential.

Soil And Site

The Ghercina estate sits on Helvetian soils, the chalky calcareous sediment that underlies much of the Barolo DOCG and gives Nebbiolo its firm tannin backbone and capacity to age. The southwest orientation pushes ripeness without forcing it: grapes reach phenolic maturity without losing acidity. The Gavi Fossili comes from a different landscape entirely: marl and fossil-rich soils near the town of Gavi in Alessandria province, closer to the Ligurian coast than to the Langhe, where the chalky ground and cooler maritime influence keep Cortese pale, floral, and firmly acidic.

Story

Giovanni Sartirano began producing and selling wine in the Langhe in 1871. By 1910 he had moved from farming into building a formal sales organisation, a shift from grower to merchant-producer that changed the family's commercial ambition. After the Second World War, Pietro and Giovanni Sartirano relaunched distribution in 1946 under the San Silvestro name, choosing to sell under their own label at a time when most Piedmontese producers still sold wine in bulk to merchants. The name San Silvestro is the one on every bottle today.

The contemporary chapter opened when cousins Guido and Paolo joined the business and the family began acquiring estates. Tenuta Arnulfo Costa di Bussia in Monforte d'Alba is a family estate. Tenuta Ghercina followed in 2002, bringing eight hectares three kilometres from Barolo castle and the site where the family built its new underground cellar. The cellar's capacity runs above 15,000 hectolitres, with dedicated wood-ageing and bottle-storage areas. San Silvestro also maintains an organic-labelled range covering Barolo, Piemonte Rosso, Piemonte Barbera, Piemonte Cortese, and Piemonte Bianco.

Vineyards And Cellar

San Silvestro owns seven hectares of vineyards and buys grapes from cooperating growers across Piemonte. The house farms Nebbiolo for Barolo and grows Barbera, Dolcetto, Grignolino, Arneis, Cortese, Moscato, Favorita, and Nas-cëtta across its holdings. Favorita and Nas-cëtta are two locally adapted white varieties tied specifically to Novello, rarely seen in producer portfolios elsewhere in the Langhe. Their inclusion is a deliberate choice to hold on to what the village grows rather than replanting with more commercially familiar varieties.

The underground cellar at Ghercina was designed to use gravity and temperature stability rather than refrigeration to manage fermentation and ageing. Wood-ageing capacity for Barolo and the Appassimento sits below ground, while the stainless-steel tanks used for Ottone I Barbera, Gavi Fossili, and the white wines are in the cooled upper sections. The partly subterranean layout keeps the cellar temperature stable without mechanical intervention, and the vineyard above the roof continues to produce.

Wines

The range divides into four tiers. At the base are young, unoaked Piemonte DOC bottles: the Ottone I Barbera, stainless-steel fermented and bottled young for everyday drinking, delivers violet, tart cherry, and the firm natural acidity Barbera carries from the Langhe clay soils. Dolcetto and Grignolino appear at this level too, fresh and low in tannin respectively.

The organic-labelled tier, covering Piemonte Rosso, Piemonte Barbera, Piemonte Cortese, and Piemonte Bianco, sits above the DOC entry bottles and signals a farming commitment without a change in style register. Barolo, made from Nebbiolo at Ghercina and Costa di Bussia, is the apex of the red range: long maceration on Helvetian soils, minimum oak ageing, firm dry tannin, dried cherry, tar, and rose that open over a decade or more in bottle.

Two bottles sit outside the vertical range entirely. The Barbera Appassimento takes Barbera grapes and dries them on racks before pressing, concentrating fruit sugars and softening the variety's natural acidity to produce a wine with residual sweetness, deep colour, and plush tannin. This is appassimento applied to a Piedmontese grape: the technique belongs to the Veneto, not the Langhe. The Gavi del Comune di Gavi Fossili, 100% Cortese, is raised in stainless steel and released to hold its floral lift, lemon pith, and mineral freshness intact.

In The Glass

The Ottone I Barbera opens with bright violet and fresh tart cherry, then delivers a mouthful of brisk acidity and light body that finishes clean and dry. The acidity is the point: Barbera from the Langhe carries enough natural freshness to make an unoaked, unfussy red that cuts through food without weight.

The Barolo carries the opposite character: deep garnet, a nose of dried cherry, rose petal, tobacco, and a mineral undercurrent from the calcareous soil. In the mouth, firm dry tannin grips early, then loosens slowly, with a finish that runs long and slightly austere in youth. These bottles open over eight to twelve years.

The Gavi Fossili is pale straw, floral on the nose, with white peach and a chalky mineral note from the fossil-bearing marl. Acidity is firm and mouth-watering, the body is light, and the finish is clean with a faint saline edge that comes from the proximity of the Ligurian hills. The Barbera Appassimento is darker, richer, and sweeter: dark plum, dried fig, a soft tannic grip, and a finish with residual sweetness that distinguishes it immediately from any other bottle in the Piemonte red range.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Gavi del Comune di Gavi Fossili. It is 100% Cortese from marl and fossil-bearing soils near Gavi, raised in stainless steel, and made without oak or residual sweetness. The nose is floral and fresh, white peach and lemon blossom with a faint mineral note; the palate is light-bodied, firmly acidic, and finishes with a chalky mineral edge and a slight saline lift. It is not a complicated wine. It is a very clean, appellation-specific white that demonstrates what Cortese from a geologically precise site can do when the winemaker leaves it alone. Drink it in the first two to three years for the freshness, or hold a bottle a year longer to watch the mineral character deepen as the fruit fades back.

Anecdote

In the autumn of 1946, Pietro and Giovanni Sartirano relaunched wine sales under their own name. Postwar Piedmont was not an easy market: distribution networks were fractured, most small producers sold bulk wine to merchants who bottled it under house names, and there was no obvious commercial reason for a Langhe family to go to the expense of labelling and selling under their own name. The Sartiranos did it anyway, choosing San Silvestro as the name. They needed a label, built a simple one, and began distributing.

Final Word

San Silvestro is a Langhe family business with three estates, a range that runs from fresh Piemonte DOC whites to aged Barolo, and two bottles, the Appassimento and the Gavi Fossili, that do something genuinely uncommon for their respective grape varieties. The Gavi Fossili is the cleanest way in; the Barolo is where the family's Nebbiolo territory makes its case.

Sources

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