• Italy
• Campania
• Aglianico del Taburno

The farming co-operative, La Guardiense, was founded over 60 years ago by 33 farsighted, collaborative farmers. Today membership has grown to nearly 1,000, but still only managing a total of about 1,500 hectares meaning that the fruit comes from a large selection of very small family owned vineyards. The winery is situated in the Santa Lucia area of Guardia Sanframondi in the very heart of the southern Italian province of Benevento. The land is full of undulating hills and expansive plains, each helping create a patchwork of micro-climates protecting the vines from the greatest excesses of the local heat and cold and ensuring the resulting wines are of the highest quality. Cover crops are grown amongst the vines to force the vines to root deeply. Great attention is paid to the environmental sustainability which is adopted at each stage of the transformation process using renewable energy produced by its own innovative photovoltaic system. Combine this with having Ricardo Cotarella at the helm who is one of the best known and most respected winemakers in Italy, this is proof that Cooperative winemaking is not to be sniffed at.