We are three English friends, Andy, Mike and John, who bought a house in Fontana Liri Superiore twelve years ago which had a small terraced garden with 15 olive trees. We were immediately welcomed into the small community and were encouraged every year to press our own oil using the local frantoio.
We met Gianluigi when he was was working with the Lazio agricultural development board (ARSIAL) creating an inventory of the different varieties of local olive trees in the Lazio Region. Gianluigi has a wealth of knowledge about local olive growers and presses and his family have been growing olives and making high quality olive oil for years.
The ARSIAL research on one of the trees in our garden discovered that not only was it over 1,000 years old (the time when the castle was being built), but it was the only one of its variety so far found on the European database.
Gianluigi’s knowledge and enthusiasm inspired us to set up our small company together to import high quality, high polyphenol organic extra virgin olive oil produced in the area.
We are also buying land and planting it with rare local varieties of olive trees which produce very high polyphenol oil.
We hope to be producing our own oil in 5 years time. By using sustainable agriculture techniques we aim to protect rare local olive varieties while supporting local biodiversity. As we grow we will also seek ways to minimise our carbon footprint.