I had the pleasure of joining Ferrari Trento and the Lunelli Family in the mountain and vineyard rich area of TrentoDoc, you can spend every day looking at images of Trento and its incredible mountains, but nothing compares to seeing them in person, whether it be on the ground walking within the vineyards, or high up in the sky, sitting in a helicopter, the true magic of Trento is captivated in its altitude, terrain and people.

12 to 13 million bottles of TrentoDoc are produced each year, but more than half (7 million bottles) are produced by Ferrari Trento, they lead the way in the production and distribution of TrentoDoc, an area they hold so close to their heart, they are at the forefront of the promotion of the region, educating willing minds to it’s rich history, traditional quality and caring touch to the environment.

There are 65 wineries in TrentoDoc, otherwise, they would be classified as Trento DOC.

Ferrari Trento utilises sustainable practices not out of necessity, but out of passion. The Work of Spreading A Culture of Sustainability – Camilla Lunelli

Ferrari Trento’s vines are planted with 2 meters between each row and 80 centimeters between each vine, using natural underground water for irrigation. When planting this vineyard, they left a few trees standing within to help protect the vines from birds, by giving them a place to rest and nest.

Ferrari Trento distribute to more than 70 countries, but by far Italy is their No.1 market, with 80-85% of sales being domestic.

“The UK market has always been quite tough, it’s quite traditional when it comes to sparkling, so it’s harder to have a British consumer switching from Champagne to something which is high quality but is not Champagne, but things are moving very nicely in the UK as well.” – Camilla Lunelli

Upon arriving in Trento, we had a brief moment to freshen up in the hotel, in which a fantastic Ferrari Trento F1 display welcomes in guests from all over the world.

Afterward we were met by Camilla Lunelli in the lobby, as we gathered around we went for a short walk through the streets of Trento, admiring some of the architecture, viewing the mountains far off through the gaps in the buildings, and experiencing a local market which was in full swing, before reaching our destination for lunch, Camilla stopped in front of a historic building for Ferrari Trento, the image you see below is the very building that started the production of their wines, it was the very first winery for Ferrari Trento, with cellars stretching out under the streets on which we walked, the building is no longer owned by Ferrari Trento and is now in operation as a local bank.

When entering the restaurant, we were introduced to a wonderful surprise, Cyril Brun, the Head Winemaker for Ferrari Trento, he was scheduled to be on holiday, but had delayed his departure by one day to join us for lunch.

This was the first time that Cyril Brun had sat down with journalists from England.

Cyril shared with us a funny moment from when he told one of his sons that he was going to work for Ferrari: “When I said to my younger boy, he’s 13 years old, I’m going to move to Italy to work for Ferrari, my boy, he said what kind of corporate car will you get, I say, no, Ferrari is also a winery and he said aww, and after that he said, yes I was wondering why Ferrari would apply for a winemaker.” – Cyril Brun

Is Sparkling Wine More Exciting For You To Make?

“It’s more my expertise, of course, but I have expertise in making still wine as well, I have done it in the past, but the thing is you have to discover what can be the identity of your terroir, what can you expect from your grapes, for making wine, so I need a bit of time to leverage all the different elements.” – Cyril Brun

After lunch, it was time to head to Ferrari Trento’s HQ, their Winery, the incredible structure that’s responsible for the production of the millions of bottles that are enjoyed all over the world. Upon walking into the building, it quickly became apparent that we’d entered an F1 fan’s dream, with a walled display of Ferrari Trento’s Limited F1 Edition bottles, F1 tires, the Jeroboam bottle that gets sprayed on the podiums and a podium itself to stand on and imagine for a brief moment that you’ve just won a Formula 1 race.

“We’ve already had a very nice relationship with them (Ferrari), Enzo Ferrari was a good friend with my uncle, Gino, I was saying he also asked my uncle to enter the equity of our winery because he was absolutely not into wine, Enzo Ferrari did not understand anything about wine, but he liked the idea of having a wine called Ferrari, but we’re a family company so we said we’re not interested.” – Camilla Lunelli

After a short presentation on the history of Ferrari Trento and the incredible reach and mission of Groupo Lunelli and all the brands under their umbrella, presented by Camilla, we met up with Marcello Lunelli, who took us further into the building, exploring where the magic happens, the vast empire of stainless steel vats and walls lined with bottles of Ferrari Trento, aging away until it’s their time to represent the brand in the wine glasses of millions.

After the enlightening tour, we ventured back up into their dedicated tasting room, with a very generous display of wine glasses set out before us, under Marcello’s guidance we explored a selection of Ferrari Trento’s range from the Maximum, the Perlé and the Giulio Ferrari, venturing back to my birth year, with a bottle of Giulio Ferrari 2001 in Magnum form, an incredible and simply unforgettable experience to enjoy such an incredible wine with equally incredible company, that’s what sparkling wine is all about, the experience, the people, the location, it’s just as much what’s in the glass as it is the circumstances outside of it.

The first day was drawing to its conclusion, but not before we had dinner at Locanda Margon Restaurant with Matteo Lunelli himself, we got an hour to ourselves back at the hotel to freshen up and change into something a little fancier, then headed off to the Michelin Starred Restaurant where Matteo was waiting to greet us, each course we were served was sublime, crafted to perfection like a piece of art, it pained people to have to destroy what was created, but if they did not, then the art could never truly be appreciated.

Matteo spoke highly of Cyril Brun and briefly about the process of obtaining the highly respected French Winemaker “So the idea, first of all when we had to think about the successor of Ruben Larentis, I honestly looked first in Italy, but you know, it’s not easy to find someone who has great experience with bottle fermented sparkling wine, as demonstrated to achieve excellence and in a large winery, so again, that’s why I felt that we need to get the best, so the Champagne market for talent is bigger, it’s much bigger, somebody told me ‘oh you’ll never get somebody from Champagne’, hahaha but to be honest I really think, you know, between the many many winemakers in Champagne, we took, what I think is really one of the best.” – Matteo Lunelli

“The first time actually when I spoke to him, he said let’s talk, I will not come to Italy for any other brand than Ferrari, and I would like to visit, so he came and said let’s meet one another, and I think he also came and appreciated what we do, he loved the territory and liked what he saw, he already knew the wines and he thinks and always says, I think the wines are really very good and we can do, I think we can do something even better, and so I think we will reach great excellence, so his idea is to bring his experience and already the wines are already high standard, so we can do exceptional work and for me, it’s an incredible opportunity.” – Matteo Lunelli

What Was It Like Partnering With Sir Jackie Stewart?

“Ah, it’s nice, because we have this initiative where we auction for charity the bottles that get signed, exactly the same bottle that goes on the podium, one replica, is signed by the drivers that are on the podium just right after the celebration.” – Matteo Lunelli

The second and final day took us to new heights, after a small breakfast at the hotel, we travelled up to Villa Margon to meet back up with Camilla Lunelli, who had an incredible surprise in store, a helicopter ride around the region of Trento, giving us all a new perspective on the region and allowing us to view their perfectly maintained vineyards from a birds-eye view.

After landing, we were greeted back with a glass of Bisol Prosecco, another brand under Lunelli Group, acquired back in 2014, Camila then took us up into the vineyards, surrounded by mountains. Sometimes it’s hard to take everything in during the moment, it can feel so surreal and it isn’t until you’ve returned home and reflected, that you truly start to understand how incredible everything really was, upon walking through the vines. We settled down on a small picnic table overlooking the vines, to learn more about how they’re maintained, the thriving wildlife and how bears, deer and even boars have passed by to have a look at the vines.

After walking back down to Villa Margon the table was prepared for lunch, our final activity before departing back to England, sharing our final moments together over a light lunch and a glass of Ferrari Trento, even tasting one of their Missoni Limited Edition, White Label, to finalise the trip.

A heartfelt thank you to Matteo Lunelli, Camilla Lunelli, and Marcello Lunelli, along with Cyril Brun, Ferrari Trento’s Head Winemaker and Jess and Kirsty from Clementine Communications for educating me on the incredible region of Trento, the importance of altitude in terroir and showcasing the incredible range, story, history and operation behind Ferrari Trento and Lunelli Group.

Celebrate With The Greatest