Frantoi Cutrera

Frantoi Cutrera, olive oil from Sicily since 1906

Frantoi Cutrera is a Sicilian family oil mill from Chiaramonte Gulfi that has been tending olive trees since 1906 and pressing them in its own mills since 1979. At the heart of their work is the local Tonda Iblea variety with the Protected Designation of Origin Monti Iblei DOP. This is no anonymous large-scale operation, but three siblings and their heritage.

Frantoi Cutrera stands for single-varietal, extra virgin olive oil from southeastern Sicily, hand-picked and pressed in their own mill. The family manages around 150 hectares of olive groves at an altitude of 350 to 450 meters in the Monti Iblei mountains. If you are looking for olive oil from Sicily that tastes of a specific variety, a landscape, and a family, you have come to the right place.

Since 1906 in Chiaramonte Gulfi

The history of Frantoi Cutrera stretches back more than 100 years. As early as 1906, the family was tending olive trees in Chiaramonte Gulfi, a small town in southeastern Sicily, high above the coast.

Giovanni Cutrera, the head of the family, grew up in an old mill where heavy millstones were pulled over the olives by mules. He had known the scent of freshly pressed oil for as long as he could remember. In 1979, he and his wife Maria built their first own mill, and word of his oil quickly spread across the island.

This led to the creation of a second mill in 1999, where the family processes their own olives as well as those of friendly farmers from the Monti Iblei. Over the years, the children joined: Maria, Giusy, and Salvatore. Since the year 2000, the three siblings and their spouses have continued the work. Giovanni and Maria left them a legacy of principles, values, and knowledge, as Salvatore and his sisters tell it themselves.

For the Cutreras, tradition and modernity go hand in hand. The old art of Sicilian oil milling lives on in the family, but today they press using modern technology that protects every drop. One does not work without the other here, as Salvatore emphasizes regarding the house philosophy.

Single-varietal from Tonda Iblea

The Frantoi Cutrera range centers on one variety: the autochthonous Tonda Iblea, which is at home in the hills around Chiaramonte Gulfi. From it comes Primo Double, an organic extra virgin olive oil.

Primo Double is pressed from early-harvested, still-green olives and glows a vibrant green in the glass. It smells of grass and green tomato, with a full-bodied, fruity taste, fine bitterness, spicy heat, and a sweet, nutty note that holds it all together. Fruity, spicy, and robust—that is how a good Sicilian oil presents itself.

The Tonda Iblea is a large, round olive that owes its taste to the Monti Iblei landscape. It provides that balance of fruit, bitterness, and pungency by which connoisseurs recognize an early, carefully pressed oil. This exact harmony is what the family has made its trademark.

Primo Double is organic-certified, monitored by body IT-BIO-008 of EU Agriculture. You can get it from us in a 500 ml bottle, enough for many weeks of Sicilian cuisine. Anyone who has tried a fresh, early-harvest oil immediately tastes the difference compared to mild supermarket oils. Good olive oil is not a mass product, but the juice of a fruit, pressed at the right hour in the right place.

The variety carries the DOP seal of the Monti Iblei region. This Protected Designation of Origin is only granted if a product from a clearly defined area exhibits a quality that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Cultivation, pressing, and bottling all take place within this area.

Hand-picked, quickly pressed

Good olive oil is determined in the hours following the harvest. At Frantoi Cutrera, the green olives are hand-picked and cold-pressed just a few hours later in their own modern mill.

This early harvest and quick, gentle extraction are the reason why the oil is so brightly green and so vibrant in flavor. The shorter the distance from the olive to the mill, the fresher the aromas. Nothing should get warm, nothing should oxidize before the oil is in the bottle.

The olive groves grow on 150 hectares in a hilly landscape, 350 to 450 meters above sea level. The altitude, the mild climate, and the fertile soils of the Monti Iblei give the oil its character long before the first olive is picked.

The fact that the Cutreras also process olives from friendly farmers in the region keeps the whole valley alive. This ensures that the knowledge of harvesting and pressing stays where it belongs—in the hands of the people who have lived with these trees for generations.

The Monti Iblei are a limestone mountain range in southeastern Sicily, crisscrossed by dry-stone walls, carob trees, and old olive groves. The family's work is embedded in this landscape. When the harvest begins in autumn, the area around Chiaramonte Gulfi smells of fresh oil, and pressing continues day and night in the Cutrera mill as long as the olives are young and green.

The DOP seal and many awards

The Protected Designation of Origin Monti Iblei DOP is the most important award a Sicilian olive oil can bear. It confirms origin, variety, and craftsmanship, year after year.

Added to this is a long series of international awards that Primo Double and the family's other oils have collected over the years. These prizes honor the Cutreras, not us, which is why we do not add any superlatives of our own.

The fact that the family is entirely dedicated to their local Tonda Iblea makes them visibly proud as Sicilians. From a regional olive, a mild climate, and much patience, an oil is created here that can only be found in this one place. Hats off.

The Cutreras think in generations, not in harvests. What Giovanni and Maria began, the siblings are now passing on to their own children. Thus, a small family business from 1906 remains a vibrant house that sends a piece of Sicily along in every bottle.

Primo Double for Sicilian cuisine

From the Frantoi Cutrera range, we recommend starting with the green, full-bodied Primo Double. It is an oil for the finishing touch, drizzled raw over a finished dish.

We prefer it over grilled fish, roasted vegetables, and on bruschetta with tomato and mozzarella, just as they do in Sicily. If you prefer it stronger and Apulian, try the Muraglia in the striped ceramic bottle or the mild Crudo from Ogliarola olives. You can find our entire range of olive oil and other treasures from Italy right next door.

If you like it classic, drizzle Primo Double over warm pasta with garlic and peperoncino or over a plate of white beans. It also cuts a fine figure with robust Pecorino and a slice of bread; add a sip of water, and your little Sicilian snack is ready.

Taste your way through, from the green freshness of Sicily to the sunny intensity of Puglia. Be surprised by how different a few olives can taste.