In 2010 as in 2009. ITAS Trento are confirmed European Volleyball Champions and celebrates with Ferrari. In the afternoon of Sunday 2nd May in Lodz, Poland, the scene was repeated of one year ago in Prague when the Trentino volleyball players beat the Greek team Iraklis Salonicco by 3-1 and celebrated with a lucky Jeroboam of Ferrari that had followed them to Prague. This year, after an even bigger victory of 3-0, against the Russian team Dinamo Mosca, the ITAS Trento players, in front of millions of TV viewers, celebrated their winning the European Championships with Ferrari yet again. The same bubbles have accompanied the team during all their many victories over recent years.

Guinness was the topic of conversation on Friday 26 November 2007 at the Arena in Pesaro, when, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Gruppo Mediolanum, 9,000 bottles of Ferrari were popped. And this extraordinary toast actually ended up in the Guinness World Records, as attested by the certificate awarded recently to Mediolanum and Ferrari. In the certificate however the 9,000 bottles became 2,778. This was a drastic reduction owing to the meticulousness employed by the Guinness adjudicators, present in Pesaro at the attempt, when verifying whether a record has been broken. The number of corks that popped at the exact same time, at the Arena in Pesaro, was, according to the Guinness judges, 2,778. The other 6,222 popped just a fraction of a second before or after. But 2,778 is still a record. A Guinness World Record.

Expo 2010 is expected to be the event to end all events. Why? Because it is being held in Shanghai, because around 70 million visitors are expected, which is about 400 thousand visitors each day during the Expo’s first six months, and because for many Chinese it will be the very first opportunity for them to see, albeit indirectly, what the world is like outside of China. And could Ferrari bubbles miss the event to end all events of 2010? Of course not! In fact Ferrari labels will be the stars in the Italian pavilion, until the end of October when the Shibohui ends, this is the name of the Expo in China, among the best wines selected for the occasion by the Enoteca Italiana. “The city of man, Italian-style living” is the theme of the Italian pavilion and it is an exaltation of the Italian Style, Ferrari bubbles included, that visitors will find on the third floor, next to the restaurant where chefs will propose combinations of Chinese dishes and great Italian wines.

A restaurant, a cuisine, two proposals. And both a triumph of excellence and bubbles.
This is Locanda Margon, the restaurant owned by the Lunelli family which will reopen its doors on Thursday 22 April under the expert guidance of a new chef, Alfio Ghezzi, considered one of the new rising stars of Italian cuisine.

Locanda Margon has a natural terrace of breathtaking beauty, nestled among the vineyards just outside Trento, and it takes its name from the nearby Villa Margon, a splendid 16th century estate which is Ferrari’s representative office. The Villa, the Locanda and the Ferrari winery all express that path “of Beauty and Goodness” which is the essence of the Lunelli family’s desire to marry art and nature with bubbles and cuisines at the very highest levels.

Alfio Ghezzi, 39, Trentino, with experience matured in Italy and abroad, has developed his expertise with two masters of the calibre of Gualtiero Marchesi and Andrea Berton, and until recently he was the right hand of Andrea Berton at the Trussardi Restaurant at the Scala in Milan. His cuisine is one that sees the territory not as a fetter, but as an opportunity and a stimulus for creativity. “My objective”, Ghezzi explains, “is to enhance the raw materials, with a cuisine that is an ordered whole of product, execution, object and expression. The raw materials are a direct expression of the territory, and therefore, from a Trentino like me passionate about my land, I try to get my supplies in particular from local producers”.

Unlike the past, Locanda Margon will reserve its guests two possibilities, in two separate areas: the Salotto Gourmet and the Veranda. The Salotto will be a celebration of gourmet cuisine in à la carte and refined tasting menus, including “The Evocative Power of Bubbles” and “One dish for one wine”, a proposal which makes the wine the protagonist of the menu. With a reversal of roles: the guest chooses the wine, and the chef has the task of proposing the best combination. And the wine menu is truly rich, because in addition to old vintages of many Ferrari labels, includes unobtainable bottles from the Lunelli family’s private collection. In the Veranda, the proposals are more simple and quicker, able to combine the chef’s talent and the quality of the raw material with the needs of a clientele which is increasingly more attentive to price and speed of service. This is why the new Locanda Margon will be “a restaurant, a cuisine, two proposals”.

“We are proud,” says Matteo Lunelli, “to give an authentic talent like that of Alfio Ghezzi back to the Trentino. And we are sure that, with his creativity, he will make the Locanda Margon an unmissable destination for gourmets, as well as a place for experimentation for innovative combinations with our bubbles.”
 

Take one of the most beautiful cars in the world, place it on a refined stage, such as the Grimaldi Forum in Montecarlo and you have Top Marques Monaco, better known as the Luxury Car and Supercar Fair. Ferrari bubbles were at the seventh edition of Top Marques a couple of days ago in Montecarlo. And as exclusive partner of a new and innovative US motor car manufacturer there was, Fisker, founded just three years ago by a man who knows more than just a little about luxury cars. We are of course talking about Henrik Fisker the man behind the stunning bodies of the latest Aston Martins and the BMW Z8. Fisker will debut in a couple of months with the first top-of-the-range ecological car, a plug-in hybrid. Karma is its name and it is a hybrid car with totally electric traction, characteristics that easily explain why the Ferrari bubbles accompany every presentation of Karma in the world. “It is the first high performance ecological hybrid car”, says Marcello Lunelli, vice chairman of the Ferrari company. A car that offers the performance of a supercar (0-100 km/h in 5.8 sec) with a lower consumption than a small car (3.5 l/100 km) and extremely low CO2 emissions (which smashes the 100 gr limit with just 83gr CO2/km), a car which is therefore authentically ecological. “Companies like us that create sparkling wines cannot but be concerned with defending the integrity of the environment. This is why we have become partners of Fisker” emphasises Marcello Lunelli. The working prototype of Karma was presented at Montecarlo and the stand was overrun with visitors, including a visit by Prince Albert of Monaco, a great supporter of ecological cars and more specifically of the Karma project. Karma will be available on the Italian market early 2011. 

There is no doubt that the trade fair in Milan is the Salone del Mobile (the International Furniture Fair), but there is also a touch of Salone del Ferrari because at the most important events, particularly those of the Fuorisalone, the Ferrari bubbles are never far away. They were present, for example, in the Versace showroom in Via del Gesù 12. More specifically, the bubbles were Perlé bubbles. The same label was also present for every toast in the showroom of the prestigious brand Boffi in Via Solferino 11. And it was Ferrari again in the Fuorisalone of another great brand - Dada-Molteni, and in Elle Decor Caffè, a refined temporary restaurant furnished by the well-known Gruppo Hachette magazine, in Via Tortona, in the heart of the Fuorisalone.

The American magazine Wine Enthusiast is among the most prestigious and widespread international wine magazines and in its latest issue, which came out at the same time as Vinitaly, it mentions in its list of the 100 best wines in the world, Top 100 Cellar Selection Wines of 2009. And Ferrari was among of this élite. The strict judges of Wine Enthusiast placed Giulio Ferrari among the 100 greatest wines of the world with a score of 93 and gave enthusiastic reviews. An enthusiasm that led to Giulio Ferrari being among the US magazine’s elect, or rather among the ten wines that were tasted in Vinitaly, with Wine Enthusiast’s top connoisseur, Adam Strum, and Monica Larner, the magazine’s Italian editor. This recognition is much more thrilling if one considers that among the élite of 100 wines, there are just five sparkling wine labels and only one is Italian. And also in the Vinitaly wine-tasting the only bubbles were Ferrari.

Excellence in Ferrari is an all-encompassing concept, which first and foremost expresses itself in the high quality of its sparkling wines, but which involves everything, absolutely everything in the Ferrari world. Even the style of hospitality. And this field too has seen awards rain down on Ferrari. In Cantine d’Italia 2010 edited by Go Wine (480 pages, € 15.00) and dedicated to wine and gourmet tourism, the Ferrari Winery is at the very top thanks to a score which takes into consideration the “site, hospitality and production profile”. A position shown in the “three footprints” assigned to Ferrari and which are the highest recognition awarded by the guide. It is not mere chance that among the over 600 wineries selected, those that are “worth the trip”, only 16 were awarded “three footprints”. This means that the magic and the fascination of the bubbles, in the case of Ferrari, also means the magic and fascination of visiting the winery. And now, what are you waiting for? Visit the Ferrari Winery. Write to (negri@cantineferrari.it),or call (+39 0461 972416) and we’ll look after you.

 

Among the five hundred City VIPs on holiday in Courmayeur for the City Ski Championships organized by Momentum, there was also Damon Hill, son of the legendary Graham, motor racing ace in the 1970s, and in turn Formula 1 world champion. Damon Hill was there to collect funds for his foundation, Halow, which is dedicated to young people with learning disabilities. And he signed his autograph on a Ferrari jeroboam which was then sold at action for € 400. Punning on the fact that the two companies have the same name, the Ferrari winery and the Ferrari motor company, Hill commented ironically, “This is the first time that I sign for Ferrari”.