Winemaker Notes
Deep yellow, with pale golden highlights. The perlage is extremely fine and persistent. On the nose, fruity and rich, with complex aromas and a broad, enveloping structure. Its period of ageing in large Austrian oak casks gives it a varied rainbow of sensations that win you over with their originality. Multi-faceted in its expressiveness, it offers a perfect balance of varietal sensations, of toasty yeastiness and spices. The maturation in oak sives added harmony and richness. The finish displays great intensity and persistence.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
he 2015 Extra Brut Ferrari Riserva Lunelli wafts up from the glass with a sweetly seductive mix of ginger and cinnamon spice, complementing baked apple and pear. This washes across the palate with cooling minerality, as tart orchard fruits and notes of raw almond resonate throughout. The finish is long and full of zesty tension, keeping the mouth watering with notes of sour lime and a salty flourish that lingers on and on. This is already showing beautifully today, but it has a bright future.
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Wine Spectator
This elegant sparkler crackles with well-integrated, vibrant acidity, offering a fragrant overtone of ground anise, graphite and honeysuckle, with flavors of pear, patisserie apple, lemon meringue and hazelnut set on the fine, persistent bead. Disgorged 2023. Drink now through 2035. 8,084 cases made, 40 cases imported.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ground ginger and wildflowers swirl around warm, baking apples, creating a nose that’s both cozy and fresh. A pop of zippy lemon follows, with a punchy hit of tart lemon curd adding a crisp edge.
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.