Terre degli Svevi is a young company, recently built, created in 1998 when GIV took it over from a noble family which owned lands and estates in Venosa.
The Vulture is an area particularly suited to the production of great wines, in particular Aglianico, that is a vigorous wine and has nothing to envy, for structure, body and complexity, to the famed Italian Amarone or Barolo.
Aglianico is the prevalent grape variety in Basilicata, but also in the province of Avellino in the Campania region, where it is also known by the name of Gnanico, Agliatica, Ellenico, Ellanico and Uva Nera.
Its origins are ancient and it seems it was already cultivated in Roman times.
In this way, for Terre degli Svevi the design of a winery focused on producing high quality Aglianico del Vulture, a real niche in the market both in Italy and abroad, started to be implemented.
They started almost immediately replanting 120 hectares of vineyards to produce Re Manfredi Aglianico, the company’s forefather, and immediately joined by an Aglianico of the Serpara vineyard.
King Manfredi, historical character of the region, was the son of Frederick II of Swabia, who on the death of his father, in 1258, became the ruler of Southern Italy.
He was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, who was facing his political independence, elected King of Sicily in Palermo, and reigned until 1266, when he died in the battle of Benevento.
Dante speaks of him in the Divine Comedy.
Aglianico Re Manfredi got the “3 Bicchieri” by Gambero Rosso and the “5 Grappoli” by AIS, together with Serpara.
Then, several gold medals in international competitions such as Mundus Vini, Expo Vina, the global contest of Bordeaux, came.
A few years after the foundation of Terre degli Svevi, a white wine of great success was produced, too: the Re Manfredi Bianco, made of alien vines (Muller Turgau and Traminer).
