Podere Veneri Vecchio
Benevento, Campania, Italy
Podere Veneri Vecchio is the personal, land-first project of Raffaello Annicchiarico, who left years of work as a microbiologist in an agri food research center to return to his roots as an agronomist and rebuild a direct relationship with the vines. In Castelvenere, he focuses on recovering old vineyards and near-forgotten local grapes, farming with natural ground cover and plant-based treatments so the soil stays alive and the place can speak for itself. Harvest is done strictly by hand, and in the semi-underground tuff cellar the grapes are handled to protect their integrity, with skin contact even for whites, long macerations for reds, and spontaneous fermentations guided by native yeasts and bacteria. Time does the polishing: frequent lees stirring helps the wines settle and stabilize naturally, with no fining, no invasive stabilizing treatments, and bottling without filtration or additions, keeping each vintage variable and honest. The result is a philosophy that treats winemaking less like manufacturing and more like observation, where unpredictability is welcomed and every bottle is meant to carry the memory of the land and the people who worked it.
