The journey begins
How Castruriali started — a warehouse in Castroreale, a handful of partners and a rare Sicilian olive nearly lost to history.
Castruriali was founded on 4 November 2023, when director Yazdaan Hussain travelled to Castroreale in the province of Messina to begin what would become a single-estate Sicilian olive oil house.
The trip took in Castroreale itself, the coastal town of Milazzo and, finally, Catania — and brought together the partners who would shape the venture: Marco Rappazzo, whose deep ties to the region opened doors that outsiders rarely find, his brother Luca and Antonio and Giuseppe Mandanici, whose family has pressed olive oil in these hills for generations.
Together they purchased a warehouse and the surrounding land in Castroreale to serve as the project's production headquarters — and set about restoring a landscape of more than a million olive trees, many left untended for years.
At the heart of it all was a single goal: to bring back the Nustrali olive, an indigenous Sicilian variety so rare it had nearly vanished from cultivation, and to press it into a cold-extracted extra virgin oil worthy of its history.
"Great things often begin in the smallest of places," Hussain reflects, "with a vision, a commitment and the courage to take the first step." Castruriali Ltd was registered in England and Wales shortly after and the work in the groves has continued ever since.
