Wine Festival and Open Cellars

The most vine-covered municipality in Italy celebrates its wine

In Castelvenere, in the province of Benevento, approximately 60% of the municipal territory is dedicated to vineyards: a statistic that earned the town the title of most vine-covered municipality in Italy and explains why, for over forty years, the end of August has been dedicated to the Wine Festival and Open Cellars. The event, organized by the Pro Loco of Castelvenere with the patronage and collaboration of the Municipality of Castelvenere and the Province of Benevento, is one of the longest-running in the Sannio food and wine heritage and one of the most recognizable summer appointments in Campania.

The tuff cellars of the medieval village

The heart of the festival is not a square or a stage, but the underground of the historic center. Beneath the medieval village lies a network of cellars carved into the tuff, used for centuries by local families for winemaking and barrel storage. During the event, these cellars are opened to the public and connected by tasting trails: you descend a few steps to move from the street to a cool, dimly lit environment where producers share the stories behind their labels. Alongside the cellars, the Peasant's House documents rural life in the Telesina Valley through tools and everyday objects.

The wines: Falanghina, Aglianico, and Sannio denominations

At the tasting counters and inside the cellars, you will find Sannio DOC and IGT wines, with a prominent role for Falanghina, the white grape that symbolizes this territory, and for the reds made from Aglianico. In recent editions, the selection has expanded to include labels from other municipalities in the Telesina Valley, transforming the festival into a regional showcase rather than just a local one. Each year, the Pro Loco also creates a commemorative label dedicated to the current edition.

Barrel Palio and historical pageant

Two events have always marked the opening and closing of the festival. The Barrel Palio takes place on the first evening in the late afternoon and features the town's districts competing by rolling barrels along the streets of the center: it is the moment most participated in by the community. The final day is dedicated to the historical pageant, a parade in period costumes that crosses the village with groups from various locations in Campania, recreating the image of the wine-growing town of the past.

Conferences, Radici Award, and the Falanghina Night

The festival is not limited to conviviality. The program includes technical and cultural conferences with experts from the wine world, workshops, and guided tastings, as well as the Radici Award, a recognition given to prominent figures in the wine sector, and the Falanghina Night, an evening dedicated to the most representative white grape variety of the Sannio. After midnight, tastings continue at the foot of the Torre Venere, the nightly meeting point of the event.

What to find at the Wine Festival

• Open tuff cellars with tasting trails in the medieval village
• Tasting counters for Sannio and Telesina Valley DOC and IGT wines
• Food stalls with local dishes and typical products
• Craft and creativity area with themed exhibitions
• Live music every evening, with concerts and shows in several parts of the town
• Barrel Palio between the districts and historical pageant in costume
• Guided tours of the historical cellars and the Peasant's House
• Conferences, workshops, and Radici Award

A low-impact festival

The organizers present the event as having a reduced environmental impact, being low-cost for the public, and respectful of the context in which it takes place: admission is free and the festival takes place almost entirely outdoors and in the cellars. A choice consistent with the identity of a town that lives by viticulture.

Why attend

Those who arrive in Castelvenere for the Wine Festival find a village fair in the most authentic sense of the term, with the quality of a recognized wine-growing territory. Its location in the Telesina Valley, just a few kilometers from Telese Terme, allows visitors to combine the experience with a visit to the thermal baths, the villages of the Sannio, and the local farms: a direct way to understand what the Sannio wine region is, among the areas with the greatest oenological vocation in Southern Italy.