Famed local boxer getting into the wine business

CHURCHILL - Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini has gone from boxing inside a ring to thinking outside the box.

The former lightweight champion and the pride of Youngstown is testing the wine market as the next venture in his life. The brutal sport of boxing and the refined, laid-back style of wine tasting might seem like a bad combination, but Mancini is comfortable with the mix.

"I'm fairly knowledgeable about wines," Mancini said while attending a tasting event Tuesday at the Giant Eagle. "I've been drinking wine for almost 30 years. In California I go to a lot of wineries and learn the business. It's something I've really come to enjoy."

Mancini has teamed with "L'uva Bella Winery" in introducing "Southpaw," a Cabernet Sauvignon. Joe Hollabaugh of L'uva Bella worked with Mancini on the project, which is expected to produce wines for other levels of taste.

L'uva Bella, which is located on state Route 224 in Poland, started as a grape and juice distribution company. After the company started its winery, Hollabaugh was introduced to Mancini through a mutual friend, which led to the release of the wine last week.

The Cabernet sells for $14.95 a bottle, which is a price that Mancini thinks fits in well with his target market.

"One thing I've learned, and this I do know, that a good bottle of wine shouldn't be more than $15," Mancini said. "It has to be affordable and good."

The wine project is another step in Mancini's evolution from the fight game, which resulted in a 29-5 record before ending in 1992. He's remained active in producing movies, and he recently teamed with a partner to form "Mancini-Smith Media," a company that is currently working on an infomercial.

For now, Mancini is busy promoting the first in a series of wines. He chose a style that he enjoys.

"It's my style," he said. "I want something that the people can drink now. It's a medium-bodied Cabernet. It's a fruitier tasting wine."

Hollabaugh doesn't think that having a boxer promote wine is a hard sell. The plan is to test the wine in this area and in the Los Angeles area, where Mancini lives.

"Those barriers are being broken," Hollabaugh said of selling wine to the masses. "Ray is a perfect example of the people we're looking for to sample the wine. He grew up drinking wine. He's from Youngstown with ethnic folks. His family is Italian.

"We didn't set out to make the biggest, boldest Cabernet in the world. This is a nice, light, fruitful type of wine that's easily drinkable. It's the type you'd expect to see on the table during dinner. Ray is a good fit because he breaks a lot of those molds, and he fits well with our markets. We're a Youngstown winery, and he's a Youngstown guy."

Boxing has opened a lot of doors for Mancini, who won the WBA lightweight crown with a first-round technical knockout of Arturo Frias in 1982. He successfully defended the title with a sixth-round technical knockout of Ernesto Espana in June of 1982 at Mollenkopf Stadium in Warren.

If there's one thing you can expect from Mancini, it's unpredictability. He lives life with the boundless energy he once took into boxing rings.

"A lot of people say you're doing this because you're a celebrity," Mancini said. "I said, 'No.' This isn't Tommy Lasorda putting his name on a bottle of wine and saying, 'This is sort of good.' I picked the vintage. I went to the winery. It's my style."

It remains a unique style.