Oleificio Guccione

Historic Olive Oil Mill of Chiaramonte Gulfi

“In Chiaramonte Gulfi olive oil of exceptional goodness is produced: golden yellow, it is like a path full of green chills. Tasty, pulpy, almost nothing acidity. I rate him the best in Sicily - Luigi Veronelli

History

Oleificio Guccione was born in 1966 in Chiaramonte Gulfi, a small baroque village in the heart of the Iblei Mountains, made famous over the years for the goodness of its oil, which Luigi Veronelli considered "the best on the island".

The oil mill was founded in 1966 by our grandparents, initially as an oil mill serving olive growers in the area and always with a focus on quality and innovation. We were the first in the area, in 1990, to abandon the traditional press extraction system and to focus on continuous cycle processing.

Today the company is led by the grandsons of the founders, Vito and Giuseppe Divita, two thirty-year-old brothers with the desire to produce, in a contemporary key, great oils that manage to express the potential of our territory.

Oil Mill

The oil from the Guccione oil mill will never be a standardized oil, an industrial mold oil. It will be more bitter or more spicy, never the same.

No oil is the same as the other, but above all it cannot be from year to year. It's the plant, it's the climate, it's the soil, it's the man who never repeats himself. And then there is the mill who freely decides whether the oil he makes is still a handmade product, exploiting what nature and time offer him.

The oil mill was founded in 1966 by our grandparents, initially as a crusher at the service of the olive growers in the area, always based on a great search for quality and innovation. We were the first in the area, in 1990, to abandon the traditional press extraction system and to focus on continuous cycle processing.

Today the company is led by the grandsons of the founders, Vito and Giuseppe Divita, two thirty-year-old brothers with the desire to produce, in a contemporary key, great oils that manage to express the potential of our territory.

It's the plant, it's the climate, it's the soil, it's the man who never repeats himself.

Production

1 Collection. The olive harvest is done by hand, as it once was, with the help of traditional stairs. The stinging, so called, allows you to take care of the integrity of the fruit, select the degree of ripeness and respect the tree, often centuries old.

2 Washing. The olives are washed with a particular system that combines air and water. A sort of whirlpool that perfectly cleans the drupes of any impurities, limiting impacts and therefore any dents that would damage the olive before pressing.

3 Pressing. With the pressing, the olives are minced with the aim of obtaining a paste. It represents a very delicate phase as the type of olive pressing will lead to a more or less effective development of the aromas, bitterness and spicy oil that will be obtained.

4 Kneading. The pulp obtained by pressing is slowly stirred in particular and technological malaxing tanks in order to break the water-oil emulsions that formed during the pressing and gather the oil droplets in bigger and bigger drops.

5 Separation. The separation consists of separating the oil from the water and the pulp. To do this we use modern centrifuges that extract the oil in a very fine way without dispersing the phenolic components in the waste and thus preserving all the aromas, bitterness and spiciness.

6 Storage. After being filtered to completely eliminate the last impurities that would ferment and compromise the quality of the oil, the oil is stored in stainless steel containers, under nitrogen to cancel oxidation and at controlled temperature, until bottling.

Round Iblea

The most representative cultivar of our production is certainly the Round Iblea, a case where the name says it: the appearance and the place of origin, the Ibleo plateau.

A variety widespread mainly in the south-eastern area of the island, which finds its ideal habitat in the hilly areas and which has reached its maximum expression in the Chiaramonte Gulfi valleys.

A very delicate olive, whose yield in oil, very low, oscillates between 8 and 10 percent.

There are those who say that the taste of the oil of the Tonda Iblea is a concentrate of Sicilianity, with an intense fruity olive oil and a range of hints from the green tomato and its leaf, to the artichoke, from the aromatic herbs to the cut grass of fresh.

There are those who say that the taste of Tonda Iblea oil is a concentrate of Sicilianity.

Like daughter like father: the tree of the Tonda Iblea has thick foliage, a vigorous and slender habit.

A long-lived tree that seems to have no limits to aging, can live centuries, even millennia.

Proof of this are the Sarecen olive trees that populate and still preserve the Chiaramonte Gulfi valleys.

Territory

“In Chiaramonte Gulfi olive oil of exceptional goodness is produced: golden yellow, it is like a path full of green chills. Tasty, pulpy, almost nothing acidity. I consider it the best in Sicily "- Luigi Veronelli

Sicily has always been intimately linked to oil and olive cultivation. The presence of many varieties of olives on the island is a sign of a tradition that starts from far away. In fact, there have been many peoples who have inhabited and dominated it over the centuries, attracted by its breadth and centrality, as well as by its beauty.

Witnesses of these passages in our territory, in particular in the valleys of Chiaramonte Gulfi, are millenary trees characterized by large trunks that intertwine on themselves, the extraordinary "Saracen olive trees", silent witnesses of the passage of history, epochs, civilizations.

Sicilian oils manifest strong identities, as stratified by the legacies of each domination.

The idea of a balcony implies the idea of home and does not exclude that of a garden. In this case, the balcony is an entire country, an ancient country: Chiaramonte Gulfi, founded in 1296 by Count Manfredi, which overlooks the slope of the Iblei mountains, embracing a large part of Sicily, from the tip of Gela to Etna. A panorama that shines in an enchanting brightness in the spring light.

Those who visit the Hyblean balcony also find its best restaurant: Majore, one of the oldest places in Sicily in business since 1896, which has always magnified pork cuisine, an ancient Chiaramontana tradition.

Our Olive Oils

Zahara

Zahara, a monocultivar of Tonda Iblea, patrimony and variety queen of our territory. The olives are delicately harvested by hand from secular trees of the Chiaramonte Gulfi valleys. The harvest takes place in the first half of September at a stage of maturation which allows the olive to best express all its perfumes and properties. The olives collected are transformed into oil a few hours after harvesting in our oil mill, where we use technologies that allow us to maximize the potential of the olive at each stage of extraction.

“A wonderful and intense sensation of tomato and aromatic herbs and myrtle leaf characterizes the olfactory profile of this champion. In the mouth it is powerful, elegant and with great aromatic consistency ". (Italian oils, Il Gambero Rosso). Zahara awarded each year with the 3 Gambero Rosso Leaves, the highest recognition awarded every year to the best oils in Italy.

Pala

Pala oil is an oil obtained from a blend of Sicilian cultivars, in which the Nocellara del Belice prevails. The olives are harvested by hand as in the past, avoiding to damage and stress the fruit, which will be transformed into oil a few hours after the harvest.

The extraction takes place in our oil mill, using the best that technology can offer us, combined with the experience of the oil mill with the aim of maximizing the potential of the olive at each stage of extraction. Olio Pala represents the perfumes, the colors, the light of our land. A concentrate of Sicily!

Olio Pop

Olio Pop is an oil obtained from a blend of Sicilian autochthonous cultivars, from the most representative ones such as Biancolilla and Nocellara, to others less known, such as Moresca and Carolea. The olives are harvested by hand in a period from mid-September to the second half of October, depending on the degree of ripeness of each cultivar.

The olives harvested are transformed into oil within a few hours in our oil mill, where we use technologies that allow us to maximize the potential of the olive at each stage of extraction. Each cultivar is collected, processed and stored individually until the moment in which the mixture is studied and created.

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