Why it matters
The producer
Manincor farms 50 hectares above Lake Caldaro in Alto Adige, Italy's northernmost wine region, and is one of the largest private estate wineries in a region otherwise shaped by small growers and powerful cooperatives. The estate buildings in the village of St. Josef am See date to 1608, when Hieronymus Manincor received land at Lake Caldaro from the emperor in recognition of services to Austria. For most of the following four centuries, the land fed cooperative cellars rather than its own bottles.
Count Michael Goëss-Enzenberg, a trained oenologist, took over from his uncle in 1991. He and Sophie Goëss-Enzenberg have lived at the historic residence since their marriage that year. The cooperative deliveries stopped. The estate range, spread across Hand, Heart, and Crown tiers, now draws on fifteen varieties from roughly half a million vines.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Alto Adige runs along Italy's border with Austria, a narrow corridor of valley floor and steep hillside where the Adige River cuts south through the Alps. The climate is continental, with cold winters, warm summer days, and cool nights driven by altitude and mountain air. That daily temperature swing keeps acidity bright and aromas precise in wines that might otherwise lose both to summer heat.
Caldaro is a sub-zone within Alto Adige, centered on the glacial lake of the same name (Kalterer See in German). The lake moderates temperatures on the surrounding slopes and gives the Vernatsch grape, also called Schiava, its most identifiable address. Vernatsch is the indigenous red grape of this shoreline, planted here for centuries and at its most convincing in old-vine parcels on the lake's banks. The Kalterersee DOC appellation covers Vernatsch wines from this zone, but a single-estate monopole site answers to different logic than a cooperative blend.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Biodynamic farming at Manincor means the estate avoids synthetic inputs and follows a calendar tied to lunar and cosmic rhythms for pruning, harvesting, and cellar work. The mixed cover crops planted in alternate vine rows decompose and feed the soil; the sheep graze and fertilize. Hedges and tree groups break the monoculture that weakens vineyard ecosystems.
Fifteen grape varieties across 50 hectares demands careful site matching. Vernatsch occupies the warm, lake-facing slopes where it has historically thrived. Pinot Noir goes to cooler, higher ground where its natural acidity is an asset rather than a fight. The cellar, opened in 2004 and designed to sit within the vineyard, allows the estate to handle each variety through harvest and vinification.
Wines to know
The range in view
Manincor's fifteen varieties produce a range that runs from indigenous Alto Adige grapes to international varieties replanted after the phylloxera era. The range has three tiers.
Der Keil is a Vernatsch from a monopole site on Lake Kaltern, made from old vines and placed in the Hand tier. Vernatsch is a naturally light grape: low tannin, moderate alcohol, vivid cherry and red berry fruit, with a slight bitter edge on the finish common to the variety. Old vines on a single monopole site give the wine a focus that cooperative Kalterersee, drawn from many growers, cannot match. Der Keil is for drinking young, with food, without ceremony.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Der Keil is the right first bottle. It is Vernatsch from a single monopole site on Lake Kaltern, made from old vines, biodynamically farmed, and placed in the estate's Hand tier. The wine is light in colour, low in tannin, and built around vivid cherry, red berry, and the gentle bitter finish.