As general manager of Compagnia Dei Caraibi, Fabio Torretta has witnessed the company grow from 100% focus on the Italian market to exporting within Europe and other global markets including Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and just recently expanding into the United States. We asked Fabio more about the company and the popularity of Italian spirits in the states.
Talk to us about the history and heritage of Compagnia Dei Caraibi.
The company officially started in 1995, but the Baracco’s family has been making wine since the 18th century. Our lineup features traditional products that we first started selling in Italy before expanding to the E.U. and the U.S. We work directly with bars, restaurants, wine shops, etc., to cover all the distribution channels.
At this stage, we are still B2B focused, but we’ve grown into diversifying our portfolio to over 1000 SKU in spirits, plus Italian craft beers (only for Italian Market)!
Talk to us about some of the products you are introducing to the United States.
One of the products we are beginning to introduce into the US is the Amaro Importante, which comes from a Southern region of Italy, better known as Calabria. It’s a super-premium Amaro presented in 2016, and in Italy today, it contributes to 95% of the market share of super-premium Amaro, sweeping the category. There is additionally Vermouth Carlo Alberto, a higher quality vermouth, which the portfolio consists of red and white vermouth and a mixology product. Lastly, we are introducing the Salvia e Limone, a premium limoncello derived locally in Torino. To date, we’ve also signed an agreement with Elephant Gin, which we’re also looking to implement within the US market.
What ties together Torino and your spirits?
What ties together Torino and our range of spirits is that we try to represent a specific kind of Italian – and more specifically, we try to represent Torino’s idea of an aperitivo. Our catalog features a diverse range of offerings – including vermouth, liquors, and amaro. In Torino, vermouth is considered a regional product, closely protected by the European Union. Speaking of Torino, VermouthCarlo Alberto and Salvia & Limone liqueur additionally come from the region. Carlo Alberto is one of the few vermouths out there that uses premium quality wine for its base, while Salvia & Limone is known for being a versatile product.
Tell us more about Amaro Importante. What should bartenders know?
In Italy, Amaro Importante is enjoyed as an after-dinner drink and best served over ice or chilled straight from the fridge. We commonly use Amaro Importante as a twist in a wide variety of cocktails, such as using the amaro to elevate a Negroni. To give you an idea of the quality of the product, the Amaro Importante is ideally served as a highball amaro.
Tell us more about Carlo Alberto Vermouth. What should bartenders know?
Carlo Alberto is one of the few vermouths that uses premium quality wine as the base. The Moscato d’Asti from the Torino area is a kind of sweet wine, which makes it so special in terms of taste.
Tell us more about Salvia&Limone. What should bartenders know?
The most important thing to know about Salvia&Limone is the versatility of this product. It’s a light digestive with a very low ABV. In mixology, it’s perfect, especially for an aperitivo. You can use it in a spritz—which is so popular right now. Salvia&Limone makes it sweeter, instead of using another aperitivo. But it’s good. Very good. Of course, you can also drink it alone, on the rocks, or neat. It is versatile in these terms.
Talk to us about how Compagnia Dei Caraibi creates “beauty in the world.”
There are a lot of messages behind our motto, but we decided to transform the company in 2021 into a “benefit corporation.” We believe that businesses should always bring something good and meaningful to the community and therefore, we decided to put some pillars behind the company and say in an impactful way that we want to make a notable impact. We want to contribute to the beauty of the world, meaning that we do good and that we support the elegance of arts and culture in general.
Additionally, there are a lot of important ways that we give back to the community.
We are “contributing to creating beauty in the world”, by working on projects focused on all things beauty, such as supporting the elegance of arts and culture, movie festivals, and different kinds of art events. In terms of the environment, we focus our efforts on offsetting the carbon footprint we leave when importing our products. We focus on aspects from solar panels that cover our electricity usage to redesigning all the packaging to have a smaller impact on. The planet. We are beginning to conduct the life cycle assessment on the brands we own, which we know are of a lot of importance in terms of environmental impact. We are in the process of obtaining the B CORP certification. Finally, last year we acquired Elephant Gin. The German company donates 15% of its profits to a foundation in Africa that works on protecting elephants. For us, there is devoted importance in corporate responsibility.
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Source: Mixology News
