Frappato. I just love saying it as it rolls off the tongue. It was a word I kept repeating as I opened a of Valle dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria Frappato DOC...
The 69th Primetime Emmy Awards took place this past week. The celebrities were out in full force, dressed in their very best, for a night of glamour and recognition. Naturally, with all the celebrating, there were a lot of toasts being made. And with each toast, the glasses were filled with Ferrari Trento sparkling wine, adding a touch of Italian style to the night.
Italy’s most awarded bubbles, Ferrari Trento was the Official Sparkling Wine of Emmy® Awards season for the third consecutive year. Named the “European Winery of the year” by Wine Enthusiast in 2015 and the “Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year” at The Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships, Ferrari Trento understands what it is to be the best. Featured in world-class restaurants around the world, Ferrari Trento is also partnered with luxury brands Zegna and Maserati. After all, Ferrari Trento is a brand the celebrates the “Italian art of living.”
But Ferrari Trento is a family-owned business. Ferrari Trento was founded by Giulio Ferrari in 1902 who had studied in France, where he learned about Champagne and the metodo classico (Champagne-method). Returning to Trentino, Giulio Ferrari was the first person to understand the potential of the Trentino mountains and was the first to bring chardonnay and pinot noir to the area. Giulio Ferrari ran the winery for 50 years and every bottle he produced was a work of art.
Unfortunately, Giulio Ferrari did not have any heirs so he decided to sell the winery and selected Bruno Lunelli, a wine merchant in Trento, as successor. The Lunelli family took over in 1952 and today, President and CEO Matteo Lunelli is the third generation to run the winery.
For 700 years and 30 generations, the Frescobaldi family has been an iconic name in the wine industry. With an eye on celebrating the diversity of Tuscany’s terroir, the family owns six estates in Tuscany and produces what some consider to be some of Italy’s finest wines.
One of these wines is Luce della Vita from the hill town of Montalcino. A region famous for its Brunello di Montalcino, Luce della Vita was the first winery to blend sangiovese and merlot. The idea was to produce a wine that blended the Old World and New World together, with the traditional sangiovese offering structure and elegance and the non-traditional merlot adding roundness and smoothness. Luce Della Vite, “the light of life”, is a winery that is steeped in tradition while embracing the future.
Luce della Vita was created in 1995, initially as a collaboration between two great winemaking families, Marchese de Frescobaldi and Robert Mondavi. Today, the winery is under the sole proprietorship of Lamberto Frescobaldi. The Luce della Vita estate is located southwest of the medieval town of Montalcino. The first vineyards were purchased in 1996, with additional vineyards purchased in 2001 and 2016. Today, there are 88 hectares planted to merlot and sangiovese on southwest-facing vineyards with mixed-clay, sandy schistose and sandstone soils.
