Enrico Zampieri, 41, grew up in Padua, Italy, and studied political science in Bologna. As an impressive swell pounds the shores of the Monterey Bay, he’s here in the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills, near the laboratory for Bent Dime Winery in Scotts Valley, which he co-owns, just before sunset.
He sports baby blue Nikes, a watch with an orange face and a black Mizuono JPN zip-up with a vertical red stripe, as a chill descends on the land. It’s been a year since he teamed up with Les Wright, of 37th Parallel Wines, to create their “Lemoncello” product, a chardonnay-and-lemon-based drink.
“It tastes like real lemons, because we only use real lemons to make it,” says Zampieri, speaking less like a salesman and more like a true aficionado. “It tastes natural. It’s very smooth. It’s very enjoyable.”
In 2016, Zampieri took a sommelier course from the Associazione Italiana Sommelier. But his love of fermented grapes and music stretched back much further.
“I always liked wine. It’s a big part of the culture in Italy, especially in Padova,” he says, using the Italian name for Padua, a locale in the Veneto region.
Veneto produced 132 million cases of wine in 2022, most of it white varietals.
“At every Italian table there is a bottle of wine… That’s how it was at least when I grew up,” he recalls. “We didn’t drink wine when we were kids, but we were curious… We could taste sometimes.”
He’s done many things over the years, from studying acupuncture to shuttle driving, but the one constant has been his attachment to the beverage landscape.
The seeds of “Lemoncello” sprouted while he was working as a waiter at an Italian restaurant in Midtown Santa Cruz.
“When I was working there, I had the idea to create a line of products for mixers, for alcoholic products to create cocktails for restaurants without a liquor license,” he says, referring to how the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has separate permits for distilled spirits verses for beer and wine sales. “But then I never did anything. I didn’t follow up on the idea.”
But he couldn’t shake the idea.
It was when he shifted to a job at Lago di Como, on East Cliff Drive, that the concept began to blossom.
“I was playing with wine and sake to create mixers to expand our mix drink offer,” he says, explaining he was helping to develop their wine program. “I was trying to infuse wine.”
Fortuitously, his home in Branciforte had a helpful amenity—a Meyer lemon tree.
That was the moment of truth.
“I wanted to do limoncello,” he says. “I was scared that the wine would mess up the taste.”
Zampieri was pleasantly surprised by the result.
“It came out pretty good,” he says, “—well, really good actually.”
He found the wine provided a rich flavor profile.
“You don’t need to add a lot of sugar,” he says. “It’s not like one of those limoncellos where you do all those faces.”
This could be the basis for a good company, he thought.
“I realized it could have a bright future on the market,” he says. “And so, I proposed this idea to Les Wright.”
Wright, who’s been making wines here since 2009, just happened to be a Lago di Como customer.
“I served him a few times in the restaurant,” Zampieri says. “Incidentally, he invited me to his place to taste some wine, not long before I decided to present the idea to him.”
And, when he returned to pitch him on the business idea, he had Wright do a blind tasting.
“‘This is not limoncello; this is wine-based limoncello,’” he recalls telling Wright at the fall 2023 meeting. “He liked it. He said, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’”
The test batches began: different ingredients, different proportions, tastings.
“We liked the results,” Zampieri says.
By January, production had begun.
“Feb. 23, 2024, we did our first sale at the Lago di Como. They were officially our first customer,” he adds. “I started visiting all the restaurants that I thought it could be interesting for. It was surprisingly easy to place it, because it’s a really good product—it’s a unique product. There’s nothing else like it around.”
Traditional limoncello is a liqueur with an ABV around 28-32%.
Bent Dime’s wine-based product comes in at 23.5%.
“For the restaurant, it gives the opportunity to sell limoncello—which they couldn’t before,” Zampieri says, describing how he shifted into sales mode at that point. “For me it was a new job. I’ve never done that kind of job.”
He estimates he’d visit around 10-15 restaurants a week.
“We had a very positive response from the first day,” he says. “In July, I had over 50 restaurants—56 restaurants—that bought at least once from us.”
And now, one year on, what better way to mark the milestone than with a musical evening.
On March 15, at Woodhouse Brewery, Bent Dime will host a free “Disco Limone” party, from 3pm until close.
Zampieri has been arranging for DJs to play modern Italo disco, Afro-Caribbean funk and house music “inspired by the golden era of the ’70s and ’80s.”
It seems the perfect time and place to be infusing this vibe into the Santa Cruz County landscape.
History tells of how John M. Chowning developed the algorithm that would emerge as FM synthesis at Stanford—which would form the backbone of the DX-7 synthesizer, according to reverb.com, which also notes how Dave Rossum, E-mu System’s (of Scotts Valley) co-founder, worked with Tom Oberheim and did the design review for the LM-1 for Roger Linn.
One of Oberheim’s associates, who introduced autotune to the marketplace, recently attended a January party for the Banner’s sister newspaper the Los Gatan.
Linn’s drum machines, and Oberheim products (such as the LM-1 and Oberheim DMX) formed the basis of plenty of classic Italo-disco classics.
Meanwhile, the current vice mayor of Scotts Valley is a former Universal Audio employee.
And these days with DJs like Mario Cotto (while on KCRW in LA), Daft Punk (with the documentary track “Giorgio by Moroder”), and Boys Noize & Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (on the “Challengers” soundtrack) all doing their part to revitalize the genre in the California scene, it is only appropriate that an exciting new alcohol brand out of Scotts Valley would wrap itself in Italo-disco vestments, as it launches into the broader consciousness.
The Disco Limone event, at 119 Madrone St., in Santa Cruz, will feature DJ Jimmy Jagua, live art by Kays & Polpok, a reptile show from Pet Shop Santa Cruz, Izzy’s Ice Cream Cart, DJ David (LaLoveItalo) and DJ Franky Scrumble.
“If you love American funk, you’re going to love Italian funk, Italian disco,” says Zampieri, adding, “It has been an incredible year of personal growth and challenges. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m just very grateful to be on this path and to have this opportunity.”
*Article has been updated to clarify the Scotts Valley aspect of the production process relies on infusion, not fermentation.
