FERAL

Maddalena Zanoni, who goes by 'la Madda', is from Trentino, Italy. She studied in Milan, Vancouver, Barcelona, and Paris before entering a career in business. Her professional background prior to founding FERAL included business consulting and a role at Alpro in Flanders. According to FERAL, Zanoni roots the brand's ethos in Trentino's borderland identity — Austrian grandparents, Italian parents — valuing rural simplicity over luxury.

Zanoni experienced a personal crisis at age 32 that led her to spend two months at a mountain hut in Trentino caring for goats and medicinal herbs. FERAL credits the inspiration for the brand to her experience with wildflowers and medicinal herbs in the mountains of Trentino. In preparation for founding the company, she completed a sommelier course, traveled to Copenhagen to study fermentation, and attended a fermentation workshop with Flavio Sacco in Bologna. She discovered the Mezzolombardo warehouse that became FERAL's facility through a tip from a childhood friend.

Zanoni is the founder of FERAL, a startup based in Mezzolombardo, in the Piana Rotaliana area of Trentino, Italy, that produces non-alcoholic fermented botanical drinks designed for gastronomic meal pairing. The company's lineup comprises six beverages: N°1 White Beet Hop Szechuan Pepper, N°2 White Beet Ginger Allspice, N°3 Red Beet Pepper Thyme Oak, N°4 Red Beet Lavender Juniper, N°5 Pét-Nat Rosé, and N°6 Cook The Mountain.

FERAL's founding insight, as the company frames it, was the question of whether the ritual of wine, beer, and the friendly toast could exist without alcohol. The concept originated around Christmas 2021. FERAL traces its first recipe development to late 2021, when Zanoni met Sebastiano at a fermentation course in Bologna taught by Flavio Sacco. She authors the company's startup diary blog, launched as a monthly series starting May 20, 2025.

In developing FERAL's first recipes, Zanoni worked with a Flemish scientist named Floris. The company has stated that the fermentation course in Bologna where she met Sebastiano was led by Flavio Sacco.

FERAL N°6, called 'Cook The Mountain,' was created in collaboration with Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, following the 'Cook the Mountain' philosophy of using only alpine ingredients.