The estate
The farm, covering 15 hectares in a single block, lies within the Alto Tammaro Mountain Community, in the municipality of Morcone, locality Pagliarelle — an unspoilt area of the southern Apennines at an altitude between 500 and 600 metres above sea level.
Since 2015 we have bottled and labelled four product lines: three single-variety oils — Ortice, Leccino, Monicella — and a blend. Organic certification covers the entire chain, from grove to bottle, guaranteed by the control body Bioagricert.
Our history
- ●1929
Gabriele Senior founds the estate as a mixed cereal-and-livestock farm, with olive and wine production. About 60 olive trees are already present.
- ●1999
Under Giacomo (second generation) the estate begins specialising in olive growing: the first 3 hectares of Monicella are planted.
- ●2000
The Leccino variety is introduced over about 1.15 hectares.
- ●2004
Conversion to organic farming over 4.15 hectares of groves.
- ●2005
The first 5 hectares of Ortice, a variety typical of the Sannio area near Benevento, are planted.
- ●2014
Management passes to the siblings Gabriele Junior and Angela (third generation).
- ●2016
The last 2.5 hectares of Ortice are planted, completing the conversion of the entire estate to olives.
- ●2019
Management returns to Giacomo.
From grove to bottle
Six things decide the quality of an olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil isn't made at the mill: it's made in the twelve months before it, and it can be ruined in half a day. These are the six stages we act on, and how we handle each one.
The variety
Every cultivar has its own profile and its own natural antioxidant content. We work Ortice, Leccino and Monicella separately, never blended, so each gives what it has.
Healthy fruit
An olive pierced by the olive fruit fly ferments and carries a defect no later processing can remove. Organic farming defends the grove by monitoring it, not by spraying on a calendar.
When we harvest
We pick at veraison, as the olives turn from green to purple. Wait longer and the oil yield rises while polyphenols fall: more oil, and poorer oil.
The gap between picking and milling
The most underrated factor of all. Olives left in bins heat up and ferment, so we mill every evening, with the olives picked that same day.
Extraction technology
Cold extraction, purely mechanical: no solvents, no heat. The temperature never goes above 27 °C at any stage, because past that the aromas evaporate and the polyphenols break down.
Storage
Finished oil fears light, air and warmth. We keep it in stainless steel under nitrogen, between 12 and 18 °C, and bottle to order rather than filling a warehouse.
More than 20 years of passion.