An interview with Matteo Lunelli, managing director of the Gruppo Lunelli, who, in addition to Ferrari Trento and Surgiva, also includes the Segnana distillery, the Tenute Lunelli which produce still wines in Trentino, Tuscany and Umbria; Bisol, the reference brand in the world of Prosecco Superiore di Valdobbiadene, and Tassoni, leader in Italy in the production of citrus-
based non-alcoholic drinks, world famous for its iconic cedrata.

How do you read the concept of Abitare within the Lunelli Group?
If I think of the concept of Abitare within the Lunelli Group, the first thing that comes to mind is Villa Margon, a wonderful sixteenth-century villa,representative seat of the Gruppo, immersed in the vineyards from which the Ferrari Trentodoc is born, which tells us about the taste for beauty and refined living that already existed in Italy five centuries ago.
For us today, Abitare means building a place where to create a wine of excellence in terms of space efficiency, where the partners can work in harmony in terms of comfort and wellbeing and finally where we can welcome visitors so that they can discover our values and our wines and live a memorable experience. These three elements must be combined and balanced, all with an increasingly sustainable approach, which led us to reach Carbon Neutrality on the 120th anniversary of Ferrari Trento.

In terms of sustainability, in Trentino you are particularly virtuous …
When you live in an area with such wonderful nature – and our Trentino is made up of beautiful mountains and vast uncontaminated spaces – you feel even more the duty to preserve it. We who create wines feel it in a particular way, because wine is a fruit of the earth. Let’s talk about architecture: for several years you have made precise choices with collaborations of great caliber.

Why is architecture important inside your cellars?
An iconic project is the Carapace winery in Umbria. Here we have entrusted to a sculptor, and not to an architect, the design and the challenge of creating the concept. The first sculpture in the world in which you live and work. Arnaldo Pomodoro designed the carapace, the shell of a turtle, as a symbol of longevity and contact between heaven and earth. Aiming at comfort, beauty and functionality, we have recently renovated the Trento offices with the help of the Trentino architect Monica Armani and with the collaboration of Michele De Lucchi we are studying a new hospitality concept for Ferrari Incontri. We involve architects and creatives because we believe that the beautiful – the aesthetic and functional beauty – and the good – what is
good and ethically correct – must be together.

Hospitality: what kind of experience do you offer to visitors who come to visit you in the cellar?
We have long invested in hospitality because we strongly believe in the value of experience. Today it is necessary to communicate emotions to visitors and make them live experiences. For this reason, for example, in Trento we have built an articulated experience that we have called the “Path of Beauty and Good”, in which our guests discover how Ferrari Trentodoc is born in the cellar, visit our vineyards and Villa Margon and finish the path to the Locanda Margon, a Michelin-starred restaurant, where they can combine our bubbles with the creations of chef Edoardo Fumagalli. A cuisine that tells the Italian spirit, but also the flavors of the territory. Another form of hospitality can be found at our Ferrari Spazio Bollicine: even in an airport space you can discover the Ferrari Trento brand and drink a good glass of Trentodoc bubbles in these wine bars built with Italian design around the concept meeting other people and be together. This concept, launched for the first time in 2006 in Madonna di Campiglio, is now very successful at the airports of Fiumicino, Milan Linate and Milan Malpensa.
We aim at a 360-degree hospitality: there are many other projects in the pipeline, such as the vineyard-garden on the Cartizze hill of the Bisol1542 brand, or others already consolidated that continue, such as Surgiva’s collaboration with the Adamello Brenta Natural Park.

How has the world of wine changed with the pandemic?
At first it scared everyone and led to a forced stop with the closure of bars and restaurants. But then consumers changed their style of consumption, experiencing wine at home in a more intimate context, as a moment of personal gratification. If the style of consumption has changed, the passion for wine has grown. Today, once the restrictions and social distancing are over, bubbles in particular are increasingly in demand because there is a great desire for conviviality.
Furthermore, two trends already underway in the prepandemic period have accelerated: digital and sustainability. Today, it is increasingly important for consumers to get information on the web and on social media, buy wine online and be able to count on brands that operate in harmony with the environment and with an ethical and sustainable approach.