When I went looking for a small organic olive oil producer for one of my Basilicata tours, I found Mantenera — and, really, I found Elena and Andrea. They aren’t from here. They came from Rome and Milan, beautiful, exhausting cities. Andrea Subelli bought the grove in 2014 — a stretch of land in Tricarico, between the Piccole Dolomiti Lucane and the Mantenera forest that gives the farm its name. He’d been crossing Italy on his motorbike when a small road led him here: the old trees, the forest, the view, a sign that read Vendesi. He says revolutionizing your life is never easy.
The Majatica — Queen of the Grove
The Majatica is a native Lucanian olive, tied to this land since the 6th century BC — grown not just for its oil but to be cured and eaten whole. The oldest tree in the grove is a Majatica they call the Patriarch of Lucania, planted while Galileo was still alive. It’s a gnarled giant. Standing under it, you go quiet.
The farm is a certified Slow Food Secular Olives Presidium — recognizing Mantenera for preserving indigenous cultivars of exceptional historical significance.
The Experience
You walk the grove with Andrea, and then you taste the oil the way it’s meant to be tasted — on good bread, with Provolone Podolico and the local salami from Tricarico.
Or you take it slower: a long picnic in the shade of the old trees, the Piccole Dolomiti Lucane off in the distance — Podolico cheeses, cured meats, focaccia, the bread of Matera, taralli, olives, a bottle of Aglianico del Vulture.
The Oil
Andrea drives to the frantoio at three in the morning, so the olives are pressed before they warm and lose themselves. He told me the land taught him the true value of things — oil included. Even the same trees give a slightly different oil each year, the way a vineyard does; a dry year makes it more intense. You’d expect an oil to coat your mouth. His doesn’t. It’s bright, almost weightless — it surprised me the first time I tasted it.
The farm also produces Tis’Olivo, an olive leaf herbal tea inspired by an ancient southern remedy. Bright green with hints of cut grass.
The Silence
Andrea says his friends from Milan can’t sleep when they visit — they aren’t used to so much quiet. I come for that as much as the oil: to sit at their table, and to listen to the silence of the trees.
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