Winemaker Notes
Bright golden highlights, embellished by perlage of rare finesse. Spectacular complexity on the nose, full of tropical sensations and scents that range from fruity to mineral and even toast-like, with intriguing notes of peanut butter. Sumptuous in taste, framed by razor-sharp tanginess and a citrus-like freshness. The flavor is full and rounded. Persistent and exquisitely almondy, with a beguiling and majestic finish.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2017 Trentodoc Perlé Nero Riserva wafts up with a savory display of dusty dried flowers, white smoke and raw almonds. It is sharply focused, with a stern mineral core and crisp white pit fruits contrasted by a sour citrus tinge. The finish is remarkably fresh with a pretty inner freshness, yet rich as well, as an air of custard resonates over nuances of lime, leaving the mouth watering for more. There’s a beautiful tension here.
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Wine Spectator
A graceful sparkler, with a spine of citrusy acidity enmeshed with the fine, creamy mousse as this carries flavors of ripe white cherry and nectarine fruit and crushed almond, plus hints of oyster shell and mountain herbs. Offers a long, minerally finish. Disgorged 2024. Drink now through 2032. 2,334 cases made, 70 cases imported.
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.