120 years of history at Cantine Ferrari

«You must reconquer what you’ve inherited from your parents, if you really want to possess it». This sentence from Goethe sums up what the Lunelli family celebrated for their 120^th anniversary on the 6^th and 7^th of July in Trento. If in 1902 young nobleman Giulio Ferrari hadn’t founded the Fabbrica Champagne G.Ferrari e C.ie  and in 1952 Bruno Lunelli hadn’t bought that winery, the present could not boast such a winemaking  jewel. A synergy of enlightened minds and visionary entrepreneurs which have brought success to Trentino, Italy and to the world of bubbles, always with an eye on the future. The goal of Giulio Ferrari was to understand that Trentino, though much more to the south than Champagne, had a perfect terroir for great bubbles, thanks to the presence of the mountains. Between planting the first Chardonnay vines and the unique bottle-fermented bubbles to producing unique sparkling wine there were two world wars and the almost by chance birth of the first “riserva” thanks to a bottle forgotten in the cellar.

A toast with Ferrari Trento

Ferrari’s sparkling wines were only sold at the wineshop of Bruno Lunelli who took on a huge debt to buy that winery from Giulio Ferrari. The latter, having no heirs, signed the contract with a bizarre pact: he would sell 10K bottles and about three times as many resting in the cellar, on condition that he would continue his consultancy “for life” and his two trusted collaborators, the cellarmaster and the accountant, would be hired. Bruno Lunelli signed for 30 million lire in promissory notes and got the winery. Already in 1965, when 86-year-old Giulio Ferrari died, the production had grown to 80K and the winery was moved to a larger place.

Matteo Lunelli with the mayor of Milano Beppe Sala

Then came his children Franco, Giorgio, Gino, Carla and Mauro to manage winery and wine shop. Only Giorgio, who graduated in Milan in engineering, started his career elsewhere, though he was a partner of the business, while Carla helped her mother Elda in the wine shop. In 1969 Bruno Lunelli passed the baton to his children and passed away in 1973. New projects came later, with pink bubbles, the Brut de Brut now called Perlè, a millesime that is the result of a blend of various wines from the family vineyards.

In 1972 Mauro put 5000 bottles of bubbles aside (100% Chardonnay from Maso Pianizza, an iconic vineyard to this day) and in 1980 he decided to have his brothers taste that sparkling wine, dedicating this project to Giulio Ferrari - Riserva del Fondatore, a great bubble that is now aged up to twenty years.

Matteo Lunelli, Federica Pellegrini with Matteo Giunta, Marcello Lunelli and his wife Roberta 

Cutting the cake and toasting for the 120th anniversary of Ferrari Trento

Then came the third generation with Marcello, Matteo, Camilla and Alessandro. In 2011 the iconic uncle Gino left the presidency to Matteo and like his father Bruno, with brothers Mauro and Franco they signed a pact to leave space to the younger generation. Gruppo Lunelli is the jewel on the crown of our country, all over the world: 120 years of business, and 70 years of management from the Lunelli family with a vision of creating great bubbles from Trentino while enhancing the territory, the perfect ambassadors of a cultural and artistic heritage of this part of Italy. After important renovations, the event was hosted in Villa Margon, a marvellous 16^th century building in the middle of the vineyards and the representative office of the group.

Camilla Lunelli with chefs Chicco Cerea and Edoardo Fumagalli

A celebration that the Lunellis shared with authoritative friends from politics, fashion, sport, finance, music and wine and food. A heavenly lunch curated by the Cerea brothers with Edoardo Fumagalli, chef from Locanda Margon. It’s important to point out that a celebrative stamp was issued by Poste Italiane with the Ministry of Economic Development to celebrate this important anniversary. The stamp is part of a series called Le eccellenze del sistema produttivo ed economico and will be printed in 500K copies and distributed nationwide for three months, before being displayed at the Museo di Poste Italiane. Ferrari confirms to be the official toasting wine and the emblem of the Italian arte di vivere in the world.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso