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Jannìa, our oil

Jannìa is extra virgin olive oil coming from secular Pennulara olive trees, a particular recovered type of olives. It has excellent nutritional values and was most probably first planted in this area by Basilian monks who came from the East around year 1000.

Jannìa oil is cold extracted with pressing starting within 4 hours after the collection of fruit, which guarantees preservation of all of its organoleptic properties. Crops are harvested, depending on the weather, in the middle of October, collecting olives in small crates and keeping them in the shade to avoid excessive exposure to the sun.

Laboratory tests have revealed a particularly low acidity and a high level of polyphenols, which makes Jannìa an exceptionally high-quality olive oil.

Tasting attributes

Clear, emerald green colour, scents of freshly cut grass and lime peel, tomato leaf and thistle, alternated with artichoke, sage, mint and bitter almond skin, well-structured palate, balancing quite fine and fragrant long-lasting bitter and spicy notes.

– acidità: 0,18 [±0,01] %

– perossidi: 4,4 meq O2/kg

– polifenoli: 516,7 mg/kg

Available in 500 ml or 250 ml bottles.

Sorry, we have sold out our stock.

Write to us at info@jannia.it to reserve bottles of the next harvest.

Our terrain

In the heart of Calabria

The olive grove is located in the heart of Calabria, right between the Ionian and the Terranean Sea, in Carello, a valley that is called after an adjacent village, uninhabited now but still worth a visit, which is situated right next to a place where the plateau of Sila slopes down to the Neto river. According to a local legend, the church of San Teodoro in Carello (the ruins of which can be seen today) was named after a Roman soldier who, besieged by enemies, appealed for help to God who transformed olive trees into troops that defeated the enemies.

Sila is the biggest European continental plateau which was already well-known by Greeks and Romans for its rich resources of timber and minerals. Today, it is a mountainous area covered in virgin woods with diverse vegetation and wildlife. The olive grove is located 500 to 600 meters above the sea level, at the foot of Campo di Manna and Gimella mountains (1,200 meters above the sea level), the highest peak of the Neto Valley and the last offshoot of Sila.

Ideal climate

Jannìa has always been famous for its unique microclimate. In fact, average temperatures there are significantly less rigid than on the surrounding mountains, which allows the grove to be protected from the wind and adverse weather conditions.

The land plot extends for 5 hectares and comprises about 500 olive trees, whose centennial stems are easily visible when going up the road surrounded by oaks, spruces and pine trees that leads to San Giovanni in Fiore, the main town of Sila. The terrain is fairly homogeneous tending towards sandy with a rocky structure, which is ideal for olive tree root system since it prevents water deposits in the soil. Often, foxes, boars and roes pass through. The roots of this orchard go deep into the past and now represent an authentic gem that deserves attention and appreciation.

About us

Jannìa was a name we would now and then hear in Naples when we were kids, when our dad talked to our uncle about an olive grove in their beloved Calabria. Google Maps did not exist then but their memories were as precise and sharp as photographs. Jannìa was a word written down in faded ink in the old granddad’s agenda which our family always kept. The only thing we knew about this area was that it’d produced – and still continued to produce – precious olive oil, well-known all around the region.

When our uncle and father passed away, we still remembered their stories. Coming across that old agenda, we decided to look for that olive grove and were astounded by the virgin beauty of the place, which represented both our past and our future. That plot of land was still there although it had been neglected by those who were supposed to manage it for the previous several years.

We decided to recover it and give life to our project: making high-quality olive oil on the plateau of Sila, Calabria, and employing young local professionals.

Therefore, we created a winning team: an agronomist, a mill operator, an orchard manager, young Calabrian experts in their respective fields who treat raw materials using the most advanced processing, pruning and extraction techniques to obtain a product that gets the best out of the particular local olive type and terrain.

After all, “jannìa” stands for “a plot of land where particularly good olive oil is produced”, exactly as our dad and uncle told us many years ago.

Angelo and Francesca Oliverio

… in fact, “olives” have always made part of our family name!

Jannìa, our logo

It was Basilian monks, Catholic monks of the Greek-Byzantine tradition, who probably brought the Pennulara olive trees to the area. Coming from the East, they settled in the valley crossed by the Neto river at the very beginning of the 11^th century.

Some of them lived as hermits in caves that can still be visited today, others founded the Monastery of Santa Maria dei Tre Fanciulli known as “A’Patia” and recuperated the entire area by creating farms dedicated to growing crops, animal husbandry and production of oil, which already then gained fame for its unique, almost “therapeutic” qualities.

The logo was designed in the Anima-bulimica style by an artist Vincenzo Franco, aka animabulimica_art, who interpreted the story by making a drawing with Indian ink on paper which reminds an old botanical chart commonly made by monks. An olive in the centre is surrounded by three leaves in the form of “J”, which stands for Jannìa, also referring to the symbolism of the number itself and paying tribute to the Monastery of Santa Maria dei Tre Fanciulli. In the background of the logo, you can see a red spot showing the remainders of paint on the walls of the old mill that is not used today anymore but that is still visible through the olive three leaves. In the red spot, there is a Byzantine cross, a tribute to Basilian monks that also recalls the coat of arms of Calabria Citra and appears on the emblem of the region of Calabria today.