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Trento, Italy: Charles Leclerc is hoping to win his hometown Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, but the only thing that will stand in for Ferrari’s most glamorous podium is the sparkling wine sprayed after every race.
Italian winemaker Ferrari Trento is “the official toast of Formula 1,” which to a global television audience largely translates to jubilant drivers celebrating by getting each other drunk.
The brand, based in the Alpine city of Trento in northeastern Italy, has nothing to do with Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s team, with its roots stretching back to the dawn of the automotive age, long before Enzo Ferrari built his first before a racing car.
Perched above the vineyards on a wooded hillside overlooking the Adige Valley, the family-owned Villa Margon is a Renaissance gem open to the public and its frescoes painted in the 16th century still remain today Energetic.
Away from any racing tracks, walking down a rocky road, the silence is broken by the sound of birdsong.
This modern winery, located in a valley below the heavy traffic of the A22 highway leading to the Brenner Pass and Austria, has the capacity to store 20 million bottles of wine and sold more than 6 million bottles last year.
Founded in 1902 by Giulio Ferrari, the business was sold to Trento winery owner Bruno Lunelli in 1952 and is currently run by the third generation.
“My uncle and Enzo Ferrari were very good friends,” Ferrari Trento Vice President Camilla Lunelli told Reuters over lunch at the company’s Michelin-starred Locanda Margon restaurant. Chef Edoardo Fumagalli creates miniature culinary masterpieces there.
“Enzo Ferrari also asked my uncle Gino, if he could, to take a stake in our company because he said ‘I don’t really like wine, I don’t know anything about wine, but I like the idea of Ferrari wine’ .
“But we’re a family business, so we’re not interested in that. We’re very grateful to him.”
American market
The United States is now the company’s largest export market, with the sport’s growth there coinciding with the success of the Formula 1 partnership and Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary series.
“I think Formula 1 helped us a lot because we started in 2021 when the US just had the Austin Grand Prix, but then Miami came along in 2022 and Florida is now our main market in the US,” Lu said Nellie said.
Ferrari’s name also helps with association.
“Outside of Italy it is always one of the first questions we are asked and if we are not asked, the first thing we say is to make the relationship clear (with Ferrari),” Lunelli added .
“It certainly helps us because it’s a name that’s easy to remember.”
The current contract runs until the end of 2025 and while Ferrari Trento are keen to renew, they may face competition as the sport grows in influence.
“We’re willing to (continue), but it won’t be easy. We’ll see what happens,” Lunelli said.
Motorsport’s champagne tradition began at Le Mans in 1966, when Swiss driver Jo Siffert accidentally sprayed spectators after a cork shot out of a sunlit bottle.
A year later, U.S. champion Dan Gurney recreated the moment and deliberately shook the bottle.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, an F1 regular who won in Miami this year, likes to bang bottles on the floor to loosen the corks. In Hungary, his actions resulted in the shattering of a porcelain trophy.
“That scares us a little bit,” Lunelli smiled. “On one hand, it’s amazing, it’s really a show, it’s fun. We’re responsible for what’s in the bottle, not the glass. But I really hope he doesn’t try harder than that.”
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