Maker · Sicily

Marco Belfiore, Tenuta Belfiore

Marco's grandfather planted the first trees outside Modica in 1962. Marco now runs the estate with his father: four hundred trees, all harvested by hand.

Location

Modica, Sicily

Since

1962

Harvest

Late October, by hand

We carry

Estate Extra Virgin

The grove sits on a slope above a dry stone wall Marco's grandfather built the same year he planted the first trees. Four hundred trees isn't a large estate by Sicilian standards — the neighbouring producer runs closer to three thousand — but it's the size the family has chosen to keep, on purpose, for three generations.

Harvest happens over about ten days in late October. The olives are picked by hand rather than shaken from the tree, which is slower but bruises less fruit. They go to the press within four hours of picking.

A good oil is mostly about speed. Pick it, press it, don't let it wait around.

The result is a single-estate, unblended oil: peppery on the finish, with a grassy note that's strongest in the first few months after pressing. It's the only oil we carry, and we buy whatever the harvest gives rather than a fixed volume.