Olio Guglielmi

Apulian olive oil from the Castel del Monte territory, pressed within hours of harvest.

In 1954, Saverio Guglielmi opened a frantoio in Andria. Today his grandson — also Saverio, third generation — runs it, from groves on the Murgia plateau in the shadow of Castel del Monte, the octagonal castle Frederick II left on the hill seven centuries ago.

The house is built on speed and patience in the right order. Speed at harvest: olives are milled within twelve hours of picking, the premium lots faster still, because oil begins losing the fruit the moment the fruit leaves the tree. Patience after: the oil rests in steel under nitrogen, away from air and light, until bottling. The consortium's Puglia IGP mark on the label means the whole chain — variety, grove, mill — is checked.

And once a year, the oldest tradition of the region's frantoio families: the first small picking of the season, historically set aside for the family's own table. Guglielmi releases a limited quantity of it as Fior d'Olio — the flower of the oil.

A share of that first picking travels to Casa. That it does at all says what the relationship is; the consortium-checked IGP beside it covers the other three hundred and sixty days.