Terre Stregate

Guardia Sanframondi, Sannio, Campania

Legend has it that witches from the village of Benevento gather around their smoking cauldron under a walnut tree on the banks of the river Calore. Thus the estate’s name,Terre Stregate: “haunted land.” Young Filomena Iacobucci and her brother Carlo, together with their parents, have 1000-year-old traditions from their region at their backs, not to mention more than 120 years of family history on this estate, which was founded by forbear Filippo Iacobucci in 1898.

The vineyard took a hiatus starting in the sixties when a discouraged Armando told his sons to abandon the cellar and focus on the mill. It took another generation’s optimism to revive winemaking starting in 2004. They now farm 25 hectares of vines with organic practices here on the chalky soils of the Guardiesi hills north of Taburno mountain. Repeated Tre Bicchieri awards are a testament to the estate’s promise.

The symbol of the winery is a circle for the sun, who stays with the vines by day; the moon who is their companion at night; and the eye, perhaps the witch’s eye, but certainly also the vision of the family--to create something new by working in harmony with the magical gifts of nature. Dedicated to preserving the region’s ancient grapes, including Aglianico, Falanghina, and Greco, the names of each wine weave local mythology with the history of this family that reaches so far back into the ancient hills of Sannio.