Mandranova Blends Hospitality and Olive Oil Craft in Southern Sicily

Summary

Mandranova, a fam­ily-run farm in south­ern Sicily, is expand­ing its guest pro­gram to offer hands-on expe­ri­ences in olive oil pro­duc­tion and cook­ing classes. The estate, which also pro­duces almonds, has earned a Gold Award for its extra vir­gin olive oil and offers a range of activ­i­ties for vis­i­tors to explore the farm and enjoy the rural lifestyle.

Mandranova, a work­ing farm in south­ern Sicily, is expand­ing its guest pro­gram as inter­est grows in hands-on farm stays that con­nect vis­i­tors to the peo­ple and prac­tices behind high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

The fam­ily-run estate, located in the Palma di Montechiaro area of Agrigento, com­bines olive and almond pro­duc­tion with hos­pi­tal­ity. Giuseppe Di Vincenzo said the prop­erty spans about 180 hectares and hosts vis­i­tors in 15 rooms and a pri­vate villa set within the estate.

Two of the most pop­u­lar expe­ri­ences, Di Vincenzo said, are an olive oil tour and a cook­ing class. The tour intro­duces guests to olive oil pro­duc­tion and includes a guided tast­ing. The cook­ing class focuses on Sicilian and fam­ily recipes, rang­ing from street food to more elab­o­rate dishes.

The estate’s Mandranova Selezione has already earned a Gold Award at the 2026 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition. Selezione is a blend made from the best lots of the season’s har­vest, selected to rep­re­sent the farm’s top expres­sion each year.

The pro­ducer char­ac­ter­ized the extra vir­gin olive oil as medium-inten­sity and fruity, with herba­ceous notes along­side touches of tomato and let­tuce. It shows a clear, lin­ger­ing bit­ter­ness and a match­ing level of pun­gency, attrib­utes often asso­ci­ated with phe­no­lic-rich extra vir­gin olive oil.

In addi­tion to tast­ings and cook­ing lessons, Di Vincenzo said Mandranova con­tin­ues to invest in new activ­i­ties for vis­i­tors. Recent addi­tions include a Land Rover tour of the estate, with stops at scenic view­points, and a boat trip along the coast near Licata.

On the pro­duc­tion side, Di Vincenzo said Mandranova grows Sicilian native cul­ti­vars using inte­grated agri­cul­ture tech­niques and poly­conic vase prun­ing. Harvest typ­i­cally runs from mid-September to mid-October and com­bines mechan­i­cal and semi-mechan­i­cal meth­ods.

The olives are processed in a pro­pri­etary mill through mechan­i­cal cold extrac­tion, Di Vincenzo said, with stor­age and bot­tling han­dled on-site. Many pro­duc­ers pur­su­ing pre­mium posi­tion­ing have tight­ened har­vest-to-mill logis­tics in recent years, a shift often cited as a key fac­tor in pre­serv­ing the fresh­ness and fla­vor of extra vir­gin olive oil.

Di Vincenzo said Mandranova sells both mono­va­ri­etal oils — Nocellara, Biancolilla, Cerasuola, Giarraffa and Coratina — and blends, includ­ing Nuovo, Multicultivar and Selezione. The oils are gen­er­ally described as medium to intensely fruity, with notable polyphe­nol con­tent and green color.

Almonds are the estate’s other main crop. Di Vincenzo said the almond grove is part of a broader effort to sup­port bio­di­ver­sity and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity, pro­duc­ing three Sicilian vari­eties: Tuono, Genco and Filippo Ceo. He described Tuono as sweet and aro­matic, with a large, teardrop-shaped nut; Genco as a ver­sa­tile, mid-sized almond widely used in bak­ing; and Filippo Ceo as rounded with an intense, bal­anced fla­vor.

The hos­pi­tal­ity offer­ing includes an on-site restau­rant serv­ing break­fast, lunch and din­ner, as well as a swim­ming pool. For many vis­i­tors, Di Vincenzo said, the appeal lies in pair­ing the tech­ni­cal side of olive oil tast­ing with the broader rhythms of rural life, from walk­ing through groves to see­ing how milling works dur­ing har­vest sea­son.

Mandranova is located in Italy’s south, where pro­duc­ers have increas­ingly used agri­tourism to diver­sify rev­enue and com­mu­ni­cate qual­ity directly to con­sumers. By adding excur­sions and expand­ing its pro­gram of tours and classes, Di Vincenzo said the estate aims to deepen that con­nec­tion between farm prac­tices, local cui­sine and the vis­i­tor expe­ri­ence.