Cilento · Bellosguardo, Italy
The land is the future
Single-cultivar Rotondella extra virgin olive oil, from groves growing above 400 metres in Italy’s Cilento National Park. Picked by hand, cold pressed. Nothing else.
Our harvest
One oil, in the size you need
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The story
The name comes from a pocket watch
Our great-grandfather was called Pietrangelo, but in the village everyone knew him as Catena — Italian for «chain» — after the elegant pocket watch on a gold chain he carried with him. A rare luxury back then, and above all a mark of character.
That nickname became the name of the family farm. His given name became the name of our finest oil. His heir was our grandfather Pepe, who passed on to us the love for this land and its olives.
— The family, Bellosguardo (SA)
How it is made
Three steps, no shortcuts
Picked by hand
Rotondella olives are picked by hand, one by one, on the hills of the Cilento. It is the slowest way and the only one that does not bruise the fruit.
Cold pressed
Pressing happens cold. Heat would speed things up, but it would burn off exactly what matters — the green fruit, the artichoke, the almond.
A single cultivar
No blending, no cutting. What comes out of the mill is exactly what you find in the bottle: Rotondella, and nothing else.
Condiments
PEPE, named after our grandfather
The first four letters of his surname, and the name everyone knew him by. PEPE is our condiment made with extra virgin olive oil and chilli: the family recipe, put into a bottle.
On warm bruschetta, on garlic-and-oil pasta, on a pizza straight from the oven. A few drops are enough.
Caring for the land is the most honest way of looking ahead. Tenute Catena · since 1820