Born and raised in San Francisco, Gianpaolo Paterlini developed an appreciation of food and wine at a young age. His father, Giancarlo Paterlini, came to San Francisco from Bologna, Italy, and opened Acquerello Restaurant in 1989. The younger Paterlini started as a busser at Acquerello at the age of 14 and worked at the establishment throughout high school until he left the Bay Area to attend college at Boston University. The first summer home after his freshman year, he landed a food running position at A16 with owner Shelley Lindgren, an alumna of Acquerello. Back at school, he had the opportunity to train with Chef Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger in Wellesley, just outside of Boston, and held positions all over the front and back of the house. The whole experience got him thinking about how much more there was to learn about the industry, especially wine.

After the first semester of his junior year and just a month after he had turned 21, Paterlini secured an internship at Michael Mina in San Francisco, where the seriousness of the wine program and the attention to detail made an impact on the budding sommelier. He realized wine can be as much of a draw as the food is. Working there for Rajat Parr and Tony Cha is what really made him decide he would spend his life working with wines.

After a seven-month stint at Michael Mina, Paterlini worked a harvest with winemaker Sashi Moorman in Santa Barbara. At the end of the season in November 2007, he returned to San Francisco and began as a sommelier at Acquerello, bringing with him the practices and ideals he gleaned during his time at Michael Mina and his knowledge from the harvest. Paterlini was promoted to wine director in 2010. Three years later, the team opened 1760, a casual fine dining restaurant with a neighborhood feel. 1760 closed for the pandemic and reemerged in December 2021 as Sorella, an Italian restaurant meant to serve as a more casual sister restaurant to Acquerello.

Because Acquerello specializes in Italian wines, Paterlini aims to ensure diners understand the offerings as well as the distinct and varied indigenous varietals, regions, and styles. He has expanded the wine list to nearly 2,400 selections. Sorella’s list offers a smaller and more focused list that features Italian wines exclusively. One of Paterlini’s passions is building relationships with wineries and choosing wines to be bottled exclusively for Acquerello and Sorella. Now 36 years old, Gianpaolo leads a team of young and talented sommeliers at both restaurants. As a sommelier, he finds it most meaningful when he helps enhance the interactive experience diners have at Acquerello and Sorella. His job is not to tell people what to drink, but to help them find something to drink that will make them most happy, which he finds very rewarding.

Even in his time off, Paterlini’s life revolves around food and wine. He can often be found planning where he’ll eat his next lunch or dinner. He loves to travel internationally and makes it to Italy at least three times every year to source new wines and continue developing relationships.