Grade
Sicily is the island of Etna, shaped by fire around the volcano and by sea, sun and limestone everywhere else. Olive trees love its poor, free-draining ground and long dry summers: they work hard for water and draw up a complexity that rich, easy soils cannot give, which is why Sicilian olives are prized the world over. Our current harvest grows on the limestone and clay hills of Salemi, in western Sicily, and the oil carries it through: a fuller body, a brighter aroma and that unmistakable peppery Sicilian finish.
Independently tested from this harvest. The lower the acidity and the higher the polyphenols, the fresher and more protective the oil.
Independently tested by Laboratorio Genovese — Batch 1, harvest 2024/2025.
Grown together on the hills of Salemi in Trapani — never blended across regions or harvests.
Picked green in the first weeks of the season, when polyphenols peak.
Cold extracted below 27°C using the latest Pieralisi technology — by mechanical means alone, with no heat and no chemicals.
Straight from the press the oil is intense and powerfully pungent. We let it settle in stainless steel tanks for several weeks so the flavour can soften and round into balance before bottling.
Only once it has settled is the oil hand-bottled and quality checked by Antonio Mandanici of Castroreale — the godfather of Sicilian olive oil — into light-shielding green glass.
Made and bottled in Sicily, then dispatched to you from the UK — a short chain from the grove to the table you set.
Keep away from heat and light — a cupboard, never by the hob.
Re-cap after pouring. Oxygen and air dull the flavour over time.
Best enjoyed within three months of opening, while it is at its freshest.
For the most flavour and benefit, finish dishes off the heat.
You reached this page by scanning the seal on a genuine Castruriali bottle. Each bottle is pressed from a single harvest and a single producer, then hand-bottled at source.
The Bottle Companion
Learn more about Castruriali extra virgin olive oil, or adopt an olive tree of your own in the groves above Castroreale.
Letters from Castroreale — the harvest, the mill and the trees we are bringing back to life.
