Why it matters
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 and vineyards
Where the wines begin
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.
In the cellar
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 to know
The range in view
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.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
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.