Lorenzo Scarpone: Portrait of a Connoisseur. From sunny Terre d’Abruzzo to the Wines of Italy Hall of Fame

On February 4th, 2015 Lorenzo Scarpone will enter the Wines of Italy Hall of Fame, but who exactly is Lorenzo Scarpone?  Lorenzo is many things:  a leading advocate of Slow Food, a wine and food specialist extraordinaire, and an import/export Guru.

I had the pleasure of speaking with him at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club, considered the heartbeat of the city’s Italian community.  North Beach provided the perfect backdrop for an interview with a compaesano.

I was born and raised in the central Italian region of Abruzzo where the family business was farming. We grew our own food, harvesting grapes to make our own wine. This upbringing exposed me to the importance of local food and taught me to respect the land from a very young age. I acquired my family’s legacy of wine-making traditions which, after my father’s passing, I was able to make my own.
I recall being in charge of my first grape harvest, using a book I received from one of my Restaurant and Hotel school teachers as a guide.  The book explained, in a very scientific way, how to make wine. I realized that not everything that the old generations of wine makers claimed was absolutely true, and decided to follow my instinct. That year’s crop yielded the best vintage my family had ever had.

I arrived in 1987, after having served as a wine steward for Sea Goddess Cruises for a few years. I worked myself up to become a sommelier at the renowned San Francisco Donatello Hotel’s restaurant. At that time, most of the Italian wine here in America was flask Chianti, some Pinot Grigio, and some Lambrusco.  There was very little quality Italian wine on the market, and most of it was almost totally unknown. I realized right away that in the USA there was a place for my ideas. During my years at the Donatello Hotel I met some of the most important Italian and California wine producers.

After this experience and exposure to the food and restaurant business, I started my own company, Villa Italia, with the help of some dear friends, in 1989. We started by importing artisan wines of my native region: Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo and Trebbiano d’ Abruzzo, and slowly created a range of wines identified by an excellent price-quality ratio. Today the company is composed of 12 staff members, its portfolio includes over 150 Italian, Californian and French wines, and has received exceptional reviews by Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, Stephen Tanzer, and the Italian Gambero Rosso.

Back in 1989, right before the establishment of Villa Italia, I got to know Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, an international movement promoted as an alternative to fast food.  Its mission objective is to preserve traditional and regional cuisine, to protect food biodiversity, and to build links between producers and consumers. Through an array of initiatives, it also promotes gastronomic culture, endorses food education, and protects local and traditional foods from extinction.

Under his mentoring, I opened the San Francisco chapter and, during the early 90s, I organized events following the Slow Food criteria.  These gatherings presented me with the opportunity to showcase traditional Italian products for the American audience. I still fondly recall when, for the organization of these events, I used to fly to Italy to stock up on typical products, coming back with pounds of delicious Abruzzese cheese provided by my Mamma!   When I started the San Francisco chapter, Slow Food was a new, unexplored, almost exotic concept.  Today, eco-friendly, organic, humane animal treatment, and fair trade…are all concepts that have become quite trendy. Reflecting upon it now though, back in my day, Slow Food was our way of living.

I go to bed at night, get up in the morning thinking about what the best my home country has to offer to my new home in America.  Because of my background, I want to represent the best qualities of Italy. I consider myself more an ambassador of Italia than anything else, representing small farmers that produce high quality wines. I want to give Italian food producers more opportunities.

Certain people can be very helpful and instrumental.  If you are a decent person with new ideas, they will likely listen. Once they get to know you and begin to trust you they will love to help you out. I experienced this especially with some of the older, successful Italians.  I had a positive experience for the most part.

Villa Italia is an imaginary place. It does not exist in reality. It is an abstract and ideal venue that lives in my mind, and that summarizes what I consider of great significance and value in my life and professional path: regional and traditional food, Italian craft and history, artisan-made fine wines, farming art.

Lorenzo Scarpone spent many years pioneering, and raising the image of Italian wines to an exceptional level, inspiring others to do the same. Next month his efforts will be recognized at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, during the Italian wine convention, Vino 2015 – now at its fourth edition- at the presence of hundreds of members of the press, Italian officials and wine industry leaders.