Such is the draw of Campania to us that we have tasted and tasted and when you do this, sometimes you strike gold. Madonna dell’Olivo is a farm that takes its name from an ancient sanctuary dedicated to the Holy Virgin, located nearby. The Sanctuary was built in 1536 following the apparition of the Virgin Mary to two shepherd children on an olive tree trunk.
Founded in 2003 by Antonino Mennella in Serre, in the province of Salerno, the farm extends across the hills that gently slope towards the ancient excavations of Paestum. This privileged location, characterised by a unique microclimate, is ideal for growing the family’s century-old olive trees. With passion and dedication, Antonino strives to enhance the unique characteristics of each cultivar, producing highly acclaimed monocultivar extra virgin olive oils.
The olives, still hand-picked and pressed in just a few hours in the family mill, give rise to an oil that is one of Serre’s culinary specialties, known and appreciated as far back as 2,000 years ago. With just shy of 7 hectares of olive groves, Madonna dell’Olivo is a farm that takes attention to detail extremely seriously and because of this, Antonino elects to pit all of his olives before pressing in his state-of-the-art mill. He does this in order to retain lower acidity levels in his oils, preserve the highest possible polyphenol levels and enhance the sensory qualities.
We urge you to taste this for yourselves and have selected three of his most representative oils that we hope you will love as much as we do.
