Our history
From the passion and love for his land and the eternal emotional bond of a grandson grateful and proud of the sacrifice of his paternal grandfather's lifelong work in the fields, a good soul (Gioia Pietro), our farm Gioia Olio was born.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gioia Patrizio and I run a farm called Gioia Olio in the heart of the Belice Valley. Gioia Olio is a family business located in south-west Sicily, in fact in the heart of the Belice Valley. This unique territory, embraced by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, extends for about 420 square kilometers and includes 6 municipalities: Castelvetrano, Partanna, Santa Ninfa, Poggioreale, Salaparuta and our municipality, Campobello di Mazara, where our olive trees grow. Our company was born from the love that our ancestors instilled in us for our territory. It is rich in fertile soil where our thousand-year-old olive trees grow peacefully, in art and culture, but also in respect for nature and its natural cycle.
Patrizio Gioia (CEO)
Valle del Bellice
In our farm we grow the queen of cultivars, the (Nocellara del Belice), from which we obtain our precious olive oil (Bio DOP) and our table olives (Bio DOP).
The "Valle del Belice" and therefore its cultivar (Nocellara del Belice) is the only olive variety in Europe that has obtained a double certification (DOP), ie a (Protected Designation of Origin), "Valle del Belice" for the oil (GUCE L .273 of 08/21/04) and "Nocellara del Belice" for the table olives (GUCE L.15 of 01/21/98). It is impossible to understand a present without its past. Because of this, telling about our roots is a bit like time travelthrough the history of the civilization that brought us closer to the extraordinary olive tree: the ancient Greek civilization.
The olives destined for the oil, also harvested by hand, are transported in baskets weighing around 25 kg each and crushed within 24 hours of harvest using a mechanical process (cold extraction). The oil obtained from the pressing is naturally decanted for a few days to rid the oil of plant water residues that would otherwise oxidize over time, irrevocably ruining its fragrance, color and organoleptic properties. After decanting, the oil, which is now pure, ie free of residual water, is filled into steel tanks and stored under nitrogen so that no oxygen remains inside, which would otherwise cause our oil to age.
Some peculiarities of Nocellara del Belice olives: the pulp makes up about 85% of the olive, the oil yield is about 18-19% per 100 kg of olives; organoleptic characteristics: intensely fruity, bitter and medium hot; chemical characteristics: acidity below 0.3% and peroxide content below 7 meq 02/Kg.
