On this land for generations
Azienda Agricola Vanzanelli
The Salento of the olive trees
Maglie lies in the heart of Salento, in the part of Apulia where the soil is red, dry-stone walls have divided the fields for centuries, and the olive trees grow as far as the eye can see. Here, olive growing is not a business decision: it is what was here before us and what we hope will remain after.
Our farm grows olives and produces extra virgin oil on this land; we buy olives from no one. What we bottle grew in our own groves, and that is why we can say where every drop comes from.
An ancient craft
These photographs come from the family archive and show the harvest as it was before machines: men at the top of wooden ladders propped against the branches, women on their knees on the red earth gathering fallen olives one by one, for whole days.
We keep them in memory of those who worked this land before us. The tools have changed since then — the nets, the harvesters, the modern mills — but we carry our respect for that work, and for the people who did it, into every harvest.
The work today
We harvest at véraison, when the olive is turning from green to purple. That is the moment when the oil yield is still low but the concentration of polyphenols is at its highest: you get less oil, but you get the best oil.
The olives go to the mill the same day. Extraction is mechanical and cold, always below 27 degrees, because heating the olive paste increases the amount extracted but burns off exactly what makes this work worth doing: the aroma, the bitterness, the peppery catch at the back of the throat.
Then the oil rests, settles, is filtered and stored in the dark. And when you order it, it leaves from here.
Why we sell direct
For years the oil of Salento ended up in somebody else's tanks, blended, bottled elsewhere and sold under another name at a price that did not even cover the harvest. That is how an entire region was persuaded that making good oil does not pay.
Selling direct is the simplest answer to that problem. You know who grew the olive and in which month; we get paid what the oil is actually worth. There is nobody else in between.
Bring Salento to your table
One oil, from the latest harvest. Choose your format and we'll ship it straight from our farm to your door.
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