Decanter meets: Cyril Brun, chef de cave at Ferrari Trento

Following a hot and hectic week at Vinitaly in Verona, I jumped at the opportunity to head to the more temperate mountains of Trentino to meet with Cyril Brun, the new chef de cave at Ferrari Trento, together with Camilla Lunelli, head of marketing and third generation of the family running Ferrari and the Lunelli Group.

I have visited Ferrari on multiple occasions in the past, but this was my first time tasting the wines with Cyril. Several themes emerged, providing a glimpse into his philosophy.

‘These wines have their own identity and it’s my job to maintain that identity,’ he announced.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Ferrari Trento wines

Although Ferrari’s wines are made in the same way as those in Champagne, where Brun worked for 22 years, he tells me that they are ‘mountain wines’ that have their own sense of terroir.

We delved deeper into that theme, and his vision for the future, later that day over pizza and, of course, bubbles.

After having spent much of the day tasting Trento DOC (aka ‘Trentodoc’), round two was dedicated to tasting that other Italian sparkling wine, Prosecco Superiore DOCG.

Bisol’s Cuvee 1542 is a lower alcohol (10% abv) wine, and part of the Lunelli Group offering. Enjoying our glass of bollicine, I was impressed to hear Cyril speaking Italian. I asked if he was already fluent before he moved.

‘No,’ he replied, ‘I discovered during the harvest that I needed to learn the language quickly in order to speak to growers and staff.’

He then told me he devoted 50 hours over the winter learning the language and now conducts all his meetings in Italian, including those with management.

Transformations

We picked up the theme of preserving Ferrari’s ‘mountain identity’ while implementing changes. ‘Changes are about higher precision and consistency,’ said Cyril, who explained that he felt he could impact winemaking more quickly than viticulture, and so laid-out his plans.

The first major transformation comes from the purchase of new press machines. ‘A better press is more precise – one part could be cuvée and the next part taille, then back to cuvee,’ he told me.

With more exact pressing, he believes they will increase the quality as well as the quantity, enabling them to keep more base wines in reserve (he estimates a 20% increase). With more base wines comes the need for more storage so the winery has this summer begun significant renovations.

The second major change is oxygen management, both during fermentation and at bottling. The only base wine that undergoes barrel fermentation and ageing is that destined for Riserva Lunelli, but Cyril believes that other cuvées may benefit from a small percentage of similarly-aged base wines.

When I asked which wines, he answers, ‘all of them: non-vintage, Perlé, Giulio Ferrari.’ Base wines aged in barrel give a different feel and complexity to the wine, he explains, providing the team with another layer of options when creating the final blend.

When it comes to oxygen management at bottling, I was curious to hear his thoughts given my experience of bottle variation with older sparkling wines. He agreed that minimising variation is key: ‘jetting’ the wine before corking, as well as changing corks, is under consideration.

The final facet we discussed was dosage. Cyril envisions tailoring the dosage based on the vintage and cuvée. ‘Dosage helps open the wines but also close them, giving the wine a better chance for maturation.’

Amplifying greatness

Although Cyril believes he can impact winemaking first, I asked him if he had any plans for the vineyards. ‘Things are well managed,’ he replied. ‘The company owns over 100 hectares and has well-trained, full-time staff that work both in the winery and vineyard, so labour and training is not an issue.’

Ferrari also works with over 700 growers and has a team of agronomists that coach and manage these relationships.

If he could make one change in the vineyard? It would be convincing growers to replant better clones of Pinot Nero. According to Cyril, an old German clone is being grown and he feels there are clones more suitable for the climate (and wine) but acknowledges that kind of change is a long-term project.

When I asked him about issues of concern on the horizon, he said the cooler temperatures in the mountains should help preserve the flavours, structure and identity of the wines if faced with a warming climate, something other sparkling wine regions do not benefit from.

However, he felt that anticipating and preparing growers for future production is key – for example, protecting against hail, and the increasing need for irrigation.

Pizza devoured, Cyril offered a concluding thought: ‘Ferrari’s wines are already great, so my role and that of our team is to amplify what is already present and make them even greater.’

Something I know many will look forward to.

Cyril Brun: Bio

Born in the Grand Cru village of Aÿ in 1969, Cyril René Brun spent many years working at his family’s estate before joining Champagne Veuve Clicquot as a winemaker in 2000.

Brun oversaw the Pinot Noir programme and led the innovation and development department during his 15 years at the Moët Hennessy-owned brand, before moving to Charles Heidsieck in 2015. Over the next eight years, Brun won several Winemaker of the Year awards and drew acclaim for his work on the Champagne Charlie cuvée.

In 2023, Brun chose to leave his home region to embark on a new challenge in Italy’s mountainous Trento region, at Ferrari, replacing long-time cellar master Ruben Larentis who was at helm for 37 years.

Brun’s appointment makes him the first chef de cave from Champagne in the Ferrari’s 122-year history.

Ferrari: Latest releases from Trentodoc

Including some bottle-aged examples

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