Since 1900, the production and style of Scarpa wines have been kept intact by handing down expertise through the generations.
From founder Antonio Scarpa to Mario Pesce, from Carlo Castino to Silvio Trinchero: style, elegance and longevity have never gone out of fashion. Because Scarpa «knows how to wait» and continues to write a story of greatness. Our modern vision is simple: to expand our wine heritage to the most prestigious crus of Langhe and Monferrato and continue producing legendary labels. We believe that winemaking goes beyond the product: it is an emotion. That is why we decided to build the Scarpa Villas, offering an immersive experience among vineyards located in UNESCO World Heritage Sites: a place of luxury and relaxation, where the excellence of wine becomes beauty. Today our goal is to invest in your emotions.
Antonio and Ernestina
Wine for love
Antonio Scarpa founded the company in 1900. Born in 1879 on the island of Burano, in Venice, he moved at a young age to Nizza Monferrato to trade wines. Two connections made him stay: one was with a magnificent land with a still unexpressed winemaking potential, the other was his love for Ernestina Ottavia Deantonio, who became his wife in 1908.
At the turn of the century, Antonio and Ernestina started the «Stabilimento Enologico Scarpa», a winery specialized in bottling and marketing local wines. They nurtured an ambitious dream: to produce the best Barbera they could make in the heart of the most suitable region, unveiling the potential for evolution of a wine that was underestimated up until then. Meticulous and perfectionists, deeply in love with their land, they devoted their lives to the pursuit of quality. Antonio and his wife are still remembered to this day for their deep knowledge of Monferrato vineyards, where they selected the best grapes for Barbera Riserva wines.
Their «Stabilimento Enologico» was a modern masterpiece. They invested in barrels for the aging of red wines, but also in technology for the production of Metodo Classico sparkling wines, Vermouth and liqueurs. At the height of the 1930s, Scarpa was acknowledged as one of the most renowned wineries in Piedmont. The first vintage of Barolo was bottled in 1940 and opened the doors of the company to another highly suitable territory: the Langhe. This is the historical explanation why Scarpa is still allowed to bottle Barolo outside of the boundaries of the denomination: an exception established by the disciplinary.
The Cooperative Winery of Nizza Monferrato in 1912.
Members of the Cooperative Winery of Nizza Monferrato in 1912.
Mario Pesce
The culture of quality
In 1949, Antonio did not have heirs and was close to retirement: he then decided to sell the winery to Mario Pesce, a young producer from Nizza Monferrato who Antonio deeply respected and considered as a friend.
Pesce shared Antonio’s ambition: he had studied in Burgundy and Alsace and had returned home to experiment the techniques he learned abroad on local wines such as selective harvests, thinning of the bunches, separate vinifications and delicate aging in large barrels. But more than anything else, Mario Pesce yearned for a winemaking style that would value the longevity, elegance and territorial identity of his wines, thus enabling them to stand alongside the most renowned international labels.
Mario Pesce’s unyielding attention to quality went beyond the confines of the winery and became a symbol for the territory. During the years when the first Italian wine Denominations were coming to life (1963-1992), he was president of the Commissione per l’elevazione della qualità dei vini Astigiani (lit. Commission for the improvement of the quality of Asti wines), thus helping in bringing investment and capital to Monferrato for the improvement of agronomic, winemaking and aging techniques.
Mario Pesce perfected the shape of Scarpa bottles. Influenced by Antonio’s old drawings, he designed a slightly tapered 75-cl bottle. He drew inspiration from Magnum bottles, which have longer necks that allow better exchange between wine and oxygen. The new bottle was perfect for wines for aging and is still a distinctive trait of the company.
Pesce also looked beyond national borders. The dynamic director of Scarpa promoted the first incoming tours in the Nizza territory for journalists, importers and wine lovers. His guests came from Scandinavia, Japan, USA. His gala dinners, featuring custom-made menus, became legendary. Pesce combined the culture of wine with conviviality, learning opportunities with hedonistic pleasure, thus helping in spreading awareness on wines from Asti, Langhe and Monferrato around the world. Scarpa still keeps the legendary menus created by Mario Pesce as well as the “poetic” dedications he wrote to honor his guests.
Mario Pesce with a delegation from Japan.
Awarding of the loyalty and hard work prize to Carozzo Rosa, a long-standing employee and family friend.
Carlo Castino
The masterpiece of «La Bogliona»
Mario Pesce had no children and welcomed his nephew Carlo Castino to the winery: the latter had just finished his studies at the Scuola Enologica di Alba, the most important of its kind in Italy at the time.
Castino first became Pesce’s right-hand man and, later, the director of wine production. In 1969, he had the intuition to acquire the company’s most important estate, Poderi Bricchi: a spectacular 25-hectare single-body vineyard found between Castel Rocchero and Acqui Terme. Owning Poderi Bricchi meant being fully responsible for the quality of the wines, interpreting the variable expressions of the seasons and controlling the entire chain, from the vineyard to the table. Starting in 1974, Carlo Castino produced the first outstanding vintages of La Bogliona, an exceptional Barbera d’Asti that would become the embodiment of Scarpa’s philosophy. La Bogliona represents the realization of Antonio Scarpa’s dream. Castino was also behind the progressive zoning of Poderi Bricchi, with the planting of local varieties such as Freisa, Ruchè, Dolcetto, Brachetto and Timorasso. Carlo Castino, who retired in 2007, still lives in a small private home located above the historic Scarpa cellars with his wife Rita.
His heir is Silvio Trinchero, an enologist who professionally flourished at the historical “Scarpa school”. Longevity, Piedmontese identity and respect for varietal expression remain the cornerstones of winemaking at Scarpa, enriched by new and important acquisitions.
The interview with Carlo Castino
The renaissance of a well-known historical brand
Today
Wine, Langhe, hospitality. We invest in your emotions.
Starting from 2018, Scarpa began planning its expansion to enhance the company’s solidity and the prestige of the wines produced.
Plots in some of the most important Menzioni Geografiche in Langhe were selected and acquired: Monvigliero in Verduno and Canova, in Neive. The rationalization and enhancement of these recent acquisitions are inspired by Antonio Scarpa’s vision: to produce legendary, single-vineyard Barolo and Barbaresco labels that will soon expand the range of wines towards new qualitative heights.
Alongside wine, Scarpa invests in emotions. Excellent production and passion for the territory combine with the desire to offer first-class hospitality, featuring the direct experience of the places where the wine masterpieces of the Langhe come to life.
2017 marked the renovation of the Scarpa Villas: four splendid and independent accommodation facilities immersed among the lush vineyards of Monvigliero. Just like how La Bogliona reveals the most authentic expression of the Asti hills in the glass, the Villas turn the emotions elicited by the wines of Langhe into an experience: the pursuit of an immersive and exciting Barolo Luxury Escape that can captivate the senses and be ingrained in memory.
The historic cellars of Nizza Monferrato have undergone restorative operations that brought them back to their ancient splendor. Wine lovers can experience the Scarpa’s centuries-old history in more ways than one: from guided tours and tastings at the Tasting Room to large events organized inside the Wine Lounge & Scarpa Gallery, a multipurpose space suitable for exhibitions, cultural events, meetings and weddings.
A business card from Croce Giovanni, a wine producer from the early 20th century.
A business card from Alfredo Del Vivo glassworks, early 20th century.
Nizza Monferrato in the early 20th century.
Carlo Castino with a group of Swiss tourists at the Bricchi in Castel Rocchero.
The team working at the Bricchi in Castel Rocchero.
Staff of Guido 1971 restaurant preparing for the grape festival in Castel Rocchero.
Ristorante da Guido, awarding of the “padellina d’oro” to Lidia and Guido Alciati.
1971 Grape Harvest Festival at the Bricchi in Castel Rocchero.
Reception and tasting in the cellar with a group of Japanese chefs and sommelier Garberoglio.
A model at Ristorante da Guido during the Christmas holidays.