Ferrari Trento

Giulio Ferrari

The company dates its start to 1902, when Giulio Ferrari set out to make a wine in Trentino that could stand beside French Champagne; the house describes him as the first to plant Chardonnay extensively in Italy.¹ The Trentodoc institute also names Ferrari's founding in Trento in 1902, while dating the first traditional-method bottles in Trentino to 1899 and to another pioneer, Arminio Valentini.²

The house tells a wartime story: when Trento was bombed in 1943, Ferrari walled up his cellar, and the long-aged bottles he found after the war became the first Riserva wines. This is the producer's account.¹

The Lunelli family

In 1952 Giulio Ferrari passed the company to Bruno Lunelli, who went into debt to buy a firm producing 9,000 bottles.¹ In 1972 Mauro Lunelli set aside 5,000 bottles from the Maso Pianizza vineyard; they were released in 1980 as the first Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore.¹ Production reached one million bottles in 1981, and in 1992 a new headquarters was built in Ravina next to the historic winery.¹ In 2011 Matteo Lunelli became President and CEO.¹

Today

The company, Ferrari F.lli Lunelli S.p.A., is directed and coordinated by Lunelli S.p.A., its sole shareholder, at Via del Ponte di Ravina in Trento.³ In 2022 it marked its 120th anniversary and received carbon neutrality certification.¹ The wines are Trento DOC, made by the traditional method.