Winemaker Notes
Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore is the Italian sparkling wine that has won most awards, both in its home country and abroad. It is a Trentodoc that has succeeded in meeting the challenge of time: it matures for over ten years on its lees, acquiring great complexity but without ever losing its balance, freshness, and elegance.
The 2008 vintage displays an incredible kaleidoscope of aromas, in which the fruity notes are particularly ingratiating. In the mouth, it amazes one with the stunning richness of its fruit and the delicacy of its bubbles, which caress and envelop the palate, underpinned by perfectly integrated acidity. It is a wine of substance, aristocratic and satisfying.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a special wine that raises the bar very high for all Italian sparkling wines. The 2008 Trento Metodo Classico Extra Brut Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore (disgorged in 2020) walks a careful line between elegance and power. The wine ages on the lees for an outstanding 10 years and emerges with a silky texture and finely tuned aromas of apricot, Golden Delicious apple, honey, pie crust and crushed dolomitic quartz. This fine and elegant sparkler spreads evenly over the palate with fine beading and a creamy texture. The cool 2008 vintage is poised to take on more weight and intensity with time. Rating: 96+
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Wine Enthusiast
Bread-crust, honey and hazelnut aromas give way to ripe stone fruit and dried herb. The aromas carry over to the rich complex palate along with orange rind and dried pineapple. Fresh acidity keeps it youthful.
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Wine Spectator
A harmonious version, with a firm backbone of acidity finely meshed with the lacy mousse and detailed flavors of dried white cherry, toast point and chopped almond, showing rich hints of saffron, licorice and lemon marmalade. Ends with a long, creamy finish.
Mastering the art of Italian living is not difficult. Simply pop open a bottle of Ferrari, Italy’s most iconic sparkling wine, and you will find luxury, glamour, and undeniable quality in every sip.
Giulio Ferrari, a Trentino native, started his venerable sparkling wine house in 1902, after studying winemaking in France. Convinced that his native region’s terroir was ideal for growing Chardonnay, he produced three of his now best-known cuvées – Ferrari Brut, Perlé and Giulio Ferrari – as blanc de blancs. This innovative approach quickly paid off. Ferrari wines consistently receive some of Italy’s top accolades, including being awarded Tre Bicchieri 22 years in a row.
With its mountain viticulture (the Dolomites), Trentino is an area well-suited to the production of sparkling wines of great elegance and complexity. Large diurnal temperature range and high altitudes ensures high acidity and freshness in the grapes. With 300 acres of vineyards, Ferrari represents the largest estate in the Trentino region.
In 1952, Giulio Ferrari, having no children of his own, chose friend and local merchant Bruno Lunelli as successor for his beloved business. Today, the third generation of the Lunelli family is at the helm. Bruno Lunelli’s passion and entrepreneurial talent passed on to his sons, Franco, Gino and Mauro, who established Ferrari as the market leader in Italy and the nation’s celebratory wine par excellence. Production is in the hands of a capable team of eight winemakers and four agronomists, led by chief winemaker Marcello Lunelli. The pursuit of excellence in all areas of Ferrari production and management is an enduring family legacy with several cousins involved from the new generation: Marcello’s cousin, Matteo Lunelli, is the Chairman of Ferrari F.lli Lunelli SpA, Camilla Lunelli heads up global communications, and Alessandro Lunelli, an engineer by training, is responsible for planning and technical oversight. This generation leads the company with the aim of combining innovation and tradition, promoting Ferrari around the world as ambassadors of the Italian Art of Living.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
The southern part of Italy’s northeastern Alpine region, Trentino, produces quality wines from international varieties. But its most exceptional native variety, Teroldego, with plantings concentrated around the sandy, gravelly, limestone soils of its Campo Rotaliano district, makes a deep purple-hued red wine with scents and flavors of wild blackberry, herbs, espresso and cocoa.