Why the Olive University?

Castello di Mongiovino and its five thousand olive trees is a living, working example of a complete olive farm.  We have the good fortune of controlling all elements of production, from growing our organic olives to picking, pressing and bottling.  While this may be a terrible return on capital, as the world is beginning to discover, all that glitters is not gold.  Producing wildly labor-intensive organic olive oil with our Baglioni press provides a satisfaction which, in our opinion, would be difficult to replace by fast-track corporate promotions or widget manufacturing.  The 5,000 liters of oil which leave Castello di Mongiovino are our stock in trade, our identity and a tradition that goes back beyond recorded history.

Tradition, however treasured, is only something sustained with a storehouse of knowledge, both genetic, practiced and written.  A modern industrial olive grove may be established, for example, by the four great central Italian olive varieties, but this ignores a genetic diversity that has fought hammer and tong for thousands of years to establish its supremacy in its own little world corner.  In the same way, seventy year old gentlemen who have toiled at Mongiovino since their childhood have a wealth of knowledge which is not being passed on as it was to them and soon the world will be a poorer place because of it.

The Olive University is a shot over the bow in the battle to stop this regression.  Of course we are proud of our oil and believe it to be exceptional against all-comers, yet the purpose remains to provide a living palette for the olive oil user, the slow-food connoisseur, the Italophile, the friend of a lifestyle that is something different from what globalization is forcing down our throats even if this means the paradox of reaping globalization’s benefits, namely the non-Italian enjoying a working olive farm learned about through the internet.  Just as Castello di Mongiovino can never be allowed to be broken up into units and sold as retirement property to Northern Europeans, neither can it remain frozen in time:  the Olive University is the middle path and we would very much like for you to come join us.


Most Sincerely,
Paul Armas Lepisto,
Ettore Donati Guerrieri