If you love true Extra Virgin Olive Oil, experiencing the olive harvest in Sicily and tasting the oil straight from the press, is a must for your bucket list.
Sicily accounts for 10% of Italy's olive oil production. The olive was first introduced to Sicily in the 6th Century BC by Greek settlers and olive oil has been produced on the island ever since.
Our olive orchards are located in Santa Ninfa on the western side of the island. Here, our family has been making Extra Virgin Olive Oil since 1935. Each year we send out a special invitation to our customers to come and join us in Sicily at harvest time which takes place in October & November.
One whole day of our Sicily tour is dedicated to the olive harvest. First we visit the Castello di Rampinzeri where Papa Vince worked as an apprentice for the Di Stefani nobility and first learned the art of making Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Afterwards we head over to the Papa Vince farm to meet the family and experience the traditional method of olive harvesting. Cousin Vito is Papa Vince's grandson who oversees the whole operation. With his guidance, you will join in the process of handpicking the olives, a technique which preserves both the delicacy of the fruit and the trees themselves, many of which are over 100 years old. You will then experience the ‘Frantoio’ where we press the olives with technology that allows us to continue ancient olive oil pressing techniques without compromising the quality and nutrients of the oil.
You will learn all the steps of growing, picking and pressing olives and you'll know what to look for in taste, acidity, color and texture of an olive oil and how to pair your olive oil with food. Of course you get to taste the oil that's pressed from the olives that you helped to pick in the morning ... it's the highlight of the day and you'll never look at your bottle in the same way.
Come to Sicily with us. Click to download our 2019 itinerary.
Check out this video to see how much fun we can have together in Sicily.