From the atlas
Ferrari Trento
At A Glance
Producer: Ferrari Trento Type: Sparkling wine house Appellation: Trento DOC, Trentino, Italy Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir Method: Traditional method (second fermentation in bottle) Founded: 1902 Family: Lunelli, since 1952 Estate: 132 hectares, organically certified since 2017; 600-plus partner growers
The Producer
In 1902, a Trentino winemaker named Giulio Ferrari returned from Champagne convinced that his home region could make sparkling wine by the same method and from the same grape. He planted Chardonnay across his vineyards at a time when the variety was virtually unknown in Italy, and in 1906 won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Milan, the first formal recognition that his bet had worked.
Ferrari Trento is now the dominant name in Trento DOC, Italy's only appellation dedicated exclusively to traditional-method sparkling wine. All bottles come from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown in mountain vineyards across Trentino, made by secondary fermentation in bottle, and aged on lees before disgorgement. The Lunelli family has owned and directed the estate since 1952, scaling production from 9,000 bottles a year to more than one million by 1981 without abandoning the traditional method or the alpine vineyard sourcing Giulio Ferrari built the house on.
Place
Trentino sits in the Italian Alps, where the Adige valley cuts south from the Brenner Pass toward Verona. The landscape is narrow and steep: vineyards climb hillsides above the valley floor, exposed to sun but cooled at night by mountain air that descends from higher elevations. That daily temperature shift between warm afternoons and cold nights is what the traditional method needs in its base wine, long before bubbles enter the picture. Grapes that ripen slowly in cool mountain air retain the acidity that, once captured in bottle by secondary fermentation, holds a sparkling wine alive through extended lees contact and gives it freshness at disgorgement.
Trento DOC, established as Italy's first controlled appellation for traditional-method wine, covers the whole of the Trentino province. Ferrari Trento draws from 132 hectares of estate vineyards and from more than 600 partner growers distributed across the most suitable mountain zones.
Soil And Site
The packet does not specify individual vineyard altitudes or soil types beyond the mountain classification. What is known: the estate sources Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from vineyards in the hills above the Adige valley, hand-harvests every bunch, and applies a proprietary sustainable-viticulture protocol called Vigneto Ferrari across the supply chain. That protocol focuses on soil fertility through organic matter, natural manure, and soil cultivation, and on biodiversity through autumn cover crops sown to support pollinators. Estate-owned vineyards have held organic certification since 2017.
Story
Giulio Ferrari built the house on an idea and a vine. He had no family winemaking tradition behind him but he had visited Champagne and he had looked at the hills around Trento and seen a useful similarity: mountain slopes, cool nights, chalky soils, and a long growing season that kept grapes on the vine without losing acidity. He planted Chardonnay, vinified by the traditional method, and by 1906 had a gold medal to show for it.
He had no children and no succession plan. By 1952 he was ready to sell, and Bruno Lunelli, a local merchant who understood the value of what Giulio Ferrari had built, went into significant personal debt to acquire the estate. Bruno's family grew the production steadily and methodically. The Lunellis reached one million bottles in 1981, built a new headquarters in Ravina in 1992, and passed leadership to Matteo Lunelli as President and CEO in 2011. Each transition preserved the original two decisions: the traditional method and the mountain-vineyard source.
Giulio Ferrari's founding idea survived his own exit because it had been proven by the wine, not only by reputation.
Vineyards And Cellar
Ferrari Trento grows Chardonnay and Pinot Noir across 132 hectares of estate vineyards, supplemented by grapes from more than 600 Trentino growers supported by eight in-house agronomists. Every bunch is picked by hand. The Vigneto Ferrari protocol, which the estate requires of all direct suppliers and a portion of indirect ones, binds the whole supply chain to the same approach to soil health and biodiversity.
In the cellar, the traditional method drives every wine in the range. Base wines undergo primary fermentation, then a second fermentation inside the sealed bottle, where yeast contact over months or years adds complexity, texture, and autolytic character. The 2018 Ferrari Perlé was fermented in stainless steel, then passed through malolactic fermentation before its second fermentation in bottle and an average lees ageing of at least 45 months before disgorgement. The process is slow by design: the wines cannot be rushed without losing what the mountain fruit and extended lees contact are building.
Wines
The range runs from non-vintage to prestige reserve, all under the Trento DOC appellation, all made by the traditional method.
Ferrari Brut is the non-vintage entry point and the highest-volume bottle. Predominantly Chardonnay with a Pinot Noir contribution, it carries citrus and yellow fruit on the nose, a fine and persistent bead, and autolytic notes of shortbread and yeast from extended lees contact. The acidity is direct and the finish clean.
Ferrari Perlé is the core vintage Chardonnay, a single-vintage wine in the Perlé range. Each release is fermented in stainless steel to preserve the alpine character of the grapes, aged on lees for a minimum of 45 months in bottle before disgorgement, and released when the winemaking team judges the autolytic development to be in balance with the fruit.
Ferrari Perlé Rosé and Ferrari Perlé Nero extend the vintage range into Pinot Noir-led territory. Both follow the same extended-lees methodology as the Perlé Bianco.
Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore sits at the apex of the range, named after the founder and released only in years the estate considers exceptional. Lees ageing extends beyond the Perlé minimum, and production is limited to the best fruit from the best declared vintages.
In The Glass
Across the range, the mountain origin and the traditional method leave a consistent set of impressions. The Chardonnay-led wines open with citrus, green apple, and white pear, then develop autolytic notes of bread, yeast, and toasted brioche as time on lees accumulates. The acidity running through every wine is firm and persistent: it lifts the mid-palate, carries the mousse, and keeps the finish from going flat. Where Pinot Noir enters, in the Rosé and Nero, the texture broadens and a red-fruit thread runs alongside the autolytic base.
The Ferrari Brut is the most immediate of the wines: the fruit is direct, the bubbles fine and even, and the yeast notes present but light. The Perlé wines are slower to open and more layered in the mouth, with a tighter acid line and a finish that holds longer. The Riserva del Fondatore, in its declared vintages and after its extended ageing, carries the highest concentration and the most developed autolytic complexity of any wine in the range.
A Bottle To Understand It
Ferrari Perlé is the clearest single bottle for understanding what Ferrari Trento does and why Trento DOC exists as a category. It is a single-vintage, single-variety Chardonnay, fermented in stainless steel so that the mountain fruit comes through without oak character, then aged on lees in bottle for at least 45 months before disgorgement. The result in the glass is a sparkling wine with firm acidity, persistent fine bubbles, a mid-palate that is both fruit-driven and autolytic, and a finish long enough to confirm the investment of time in the cellar. It is not a shortcut into the range: it is the wine that commits fully to the method and the place.
Anecdote
Sometime in the late 1970s, Mauro Lunelli made a decision that nobody at the estate immediately understood. He took 5,000 bottles from the Maso Pianizza vineyard and put them aside, leaving them to age on lees far beyond anything in the current Ferrari range. There was no existing framework for what he was doing: no prestige cuvée had been announced, no release date planned. The bottles sat. When they finally surfaced in 1980, they became the first release of the Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore, the wine that now carries the founder's name and is released only in the best declared vintages. The unusual planting Giulio Ferrari had made in 1902, and the method he had committed to, had finally produced a prestige wine that bore his name forty-six years after his death.
Final Word
Ferrari Trento is the house that turned an early-twentieth-century conviction about Trentino into Italy's defining traditional-method sparkling wine category. Giulio Ferrari's founding decision to plant Chardonnay and follow the Champagne method was confirmed by the gold medal in 1906 and has been sustained by the Lunelli family across seven decades of ownership. The Perlé tier is where the estate's argument is most clearly made: mountain fruit, one grape, extended lees ageing, and the Trento DOC appellation that exists because of what Ferrari started.
Sources
- https://www.ferraritrento.com/en/about-us/
- https://www.ferraritrento.com/en/our-territory/
- https://www.ferraritrento.com/en/sustainability/
- https://www.trentodoc.com/en/trentodoc-producers/ferrari-trento/
- https://www.libertywines.ie/our-portfolio/FE504-perle
- https://www.coop.ch/en/wine/all-wines/sparkling-wines/italy/trento-doc-ferrari-brut/p/4890883