In an industry often shaped by consolidation and short-term returns, the importance of a wine house’s fiduciary responsibility - to its land, its growers, its history - tends to get lost.
In an industry often shaped by consolidation and short-term returns, the importance of a wine house’s fiduciary responsibility - to its land, its growers, its history - tends to get lost. For Evgeny Strzhalkovskiy, owner of Scarpa, one of Piedmont’s oldest private wineries, this principle is rooted not in commercial strategy but in something older: a set of values passed down through the Strzalkowski Hierta Pulkowic, an ancient Polish noble line with roots tracing back to the fifteenth century.
For the Strzalkowski family, whose members served for generations as administrators, treasurers, military commanders and elected judges, good land stewardship was never a private entitlement. It was a public service and moral duty. That inheritance, Strzhalkovskiy argues, is not merely sentimental. It is operational. “Honour, integrity and duty were not abstract ideals in my family,” he says. “They were passed down through example across generations. You do not own land to extract from it. You hold it, you improve it, and you pass it on in better condition than you found it. That principle shapes every decision we make at Scarpa.” Founded in 1900 in Nizza Monferrato, Scarpa has long embodied a philosophy of patience. Its wines are aged in large oak botti, fermented slowly, and released only when ready - an approach that resists the pressure for rapid turnover. Under Strzhalkovskiy’s ownership, that philosophy has not changed. What has changed is the scale of ambition behind it. Since acquiring Scarpa in 2017, Strzhalkovskiy has overseen revenue growth from €800,000 to a projected €4 million in 2026 - a fivefold increase. This growth has been achieved not by chasing volume, but by deepening the estate’s commitment to quality terroir which reward patience. “Scarpa is not just a personal venture,” Strzhalkovskiy says. “It is a storied Piedmont wine-making institution. The distinction matters. A venture seeks simply seeks a return and an exit. At Scarpa, I am looking to build something that continues to endure for generations to come. That is the difference between investment and stewardship.” Ex // Top Stories SF joins West Coast book club with Takei graphic novel The San Francisco Public Library has teamed up with dozens of libraries in three states for One Coast, One Book Lurie leads effort to cut transfer tax to spur housing and economy Proponents say The City’s current scheme has depressed economic activity; others say it has provided needed funding 'Time to do something': Art bar launches grant for local artists Madrone Art Bar employees are teaming up to support four artists with $1,500 grants and solo exhibitions This ethos extends to how Scarpa manages its grower relationships. These are not transactional supply arrangements; they are partnerships maintained across generations. Where industrial producers renegotiate contracts on price, Scarpa operates on continuity - an approach that echoes the responsibilities once carried by the Strzalkowski line, whose members administered communities and cultivated land with a profound sense of obligation to those living under their auspices. The same principle governs capital allocation. Scarpa’s vineyard acquisitions in Verduno, La Morra and Neive since 2018 have targeted prestigious crus in Barolo and Barbaresco - plots chosen for long-term potential rather than immediate yield. “We acquire vineyards the way our ancestors acquired estates,” Strzhalkovskiy explains. “Not to flip them, but to cultivate them over decades.” It is a model that runs counter to the prevailing logic in fine wine, where private equity increasingly seeks returns on compressed timescales. Scarpa’s organic viticulture, its slow fermentation methods and its insistence on ageing wines until ready are all expressions of a single conviction: that the interests of the land must come before the interests of the quarterly report. “The values I inherited are not decorative,” he says. “They are a framework. Duty to the land, responsibility to the people who work it, and a time horizon that extends beyond your own lifetime. If you apply those principles seriously, you end up with a very particular kind of business - one that is commercially disciplined precisely because it is not driven by short-term extraction.” In an era when the wine industry is debating its relationship with scale, sustainability and provenance, Scarpa offers a quiet counter-narrative: that the most modern approach to winemaking may, in fact, be the oldest one. *The San Francisco Examiner newsroom and editorial were not involved in the creation of this content.
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