Dueling Italian Winemakers: Manincor & Ambra @ College Ave. Thursday, March 19th

Dueling winemakers from Italy are taking over our bar: Kassian from Alto Adige’s iconic Manincor, and the folks from the small but mighty Fattoria Ambra in Carmignano, in the heart of Tuscany.

Both estates are deeply rooted in the history of their respective regions and have been instrumental in shaping the model for modern winemaking within them. Manincor dates back to 1608, and as was typical under Alto Adige’s then-common cooperative-dominated system, sold grapes rather than bottled wine for much of its early history. But when Count Michael Goëss-Enzenberg took over in the 1990s, he oversaw a dramatic shift from co-op production to terroir-focused, estate-driven wines. He also positioned the estate as a pioneer of biodynamics in Alto Adige, gaining full Demeter certification and co-founding the Respekt group promoting sustainable viticulture.

Fattoria Ambra, while less broadly recognized on a global scale, is likewise a standard-bearer in their region. Tuscany’s Carmignano was formally delimited in 1716 by Cosimo III de’ Medici, making it one of the earliest regulated wine regions in the world. Family run since its founding in 1890, Fattoria Ambra focuses on single-site bottlings of the traditional Cabernet/Sangiovese blends that express the different sites and expositions across the family’s four distinct vineyard holdings.

From Manincor’s finessed reds and mineral-driven whites (including their world class Pinot Blanc), to Fattoria Ambra’s silky, red-fruited Tuscan gems, this is the rare “duel” where everyone’s a winner.