Paciano, Umbria · May 2026

The geraniums are out in Paciano. The olive trees are in full leaf. The fields below the grove are a wall of yellow wildflowers, and the sky above Lake Trasimeno is the kind of blue that doesn’t need a filter. We just got back from four days on the ground, and we’re not going to pretend it wasn’t one of the best trips we’ve had.

This wasn’t tourism. We were there to work — locking in the 2026 harvest, walking the groves, sitting with Paolo at the mill, and making decisions about oil that won’t exist for another five months. But before we get into what’s coming, we want to introduce you to the people making it happen.

The Grower

Jury Presenti. National pruning champion. Now growing for SOLO EVOO.

Jury Presenti won the 2026 Campionato Nazionale di Potatura dell’Olivo — Italy’s national olive pruning championship. He didn’t just compete. He won it outright, against professional growers from across the country, in the discipline that determines the health and productivity of an olive grove for years to come.

Good pruning isn’t about cutting back. It’s about understanding how a tree grows, where it wants to put its energy, and how to shape that over years — not seasons. What Jury does to a tree in winter shows up in the oil you pour in November. That connection is direct and measurable.

His grove sits above Lake Trasimeno in the hills of Paciano, the same town where SOLO EVOO was born. The 2026 harvest will include oil from Jury’s trees for the first time. We’ve been watching this grove for a while. We walked it again in April. The trees looked exactly like you’d expect from the national champion.

The Mill

Paolo Vestri and Frantoio Olivestri. Where the oil is made.

Paolo Vestri runs Frantoio Olivestri, the mill where every bottle of SOLO EVOO is pressed. He and his father have been running this operation for decades. They know these olives. They know what early harvest looks like, how cold extraction behaves at different temperatures, and what the oil should taste like when it comes off the centrifuge.

We spent an afternoon at the mill in April. Talked through pressing dates, filtration, nitrogen storage, bottling. Paolo’s father joined us — the man who built the place. There’s a continuity here that doesn’t need to be performed. It just is.

The 2026 harvest presses on October 14–15. The olives come off the trees and go straight to the mill the same day. That’s not a marketing claim. It’s the only way to get the numbers we lab certify every year.

The Maestro

Stijn Taillieu. Maestro dell’olio. The reason any of this exists.

Stijn has been living and working in Paciano for years. He manages the groves, oversees the harvest, coordinates with the mill, and knows more about the olive trees in this valley than most people know about their own backyard. He is the Maestro dell’olio — a title that means something specific here, not a marketing label.

SOLO EVOO started as a conversation between Stijn and Ricardo about why it was so hard to find real olive oil in the US — oil that was actually fresh, from a single estate, with a name attached to it. He’s been on the ground in Paciano making sure every bottle earns that description ever since.

Right Now in Paciano

Spring is ending. Summer is starting. The trees are doing exactly what they should.

We were in Paciano the last week of April. The olive trees had just come out of their post-pruning dormancy and were pushing new growth hard. The lanes between the groves were carpeted in wildflowers. Every terrace wall in the village had fresh pots of geraniums and lavender stacked against the stone. The whole place looked like it was exhaling.

May and June are when the trees flower and the fruit sets. What happens in these two months determines the size of the harvest. After Jury’s championship pruning this winter and a healthy wet spring, the grove is in excellent shape. We’re optimistic about October.

Which means now is the time to get in line.

How the 2026 Presale Works

You order now. We press in October. It ships to you in November.

There is no oil yet. The 2026 harvest doesn’t get pressed until October 14–15. We run a presale because it’s the honest way to do this — we produce only what’s ordered, we don’t sit on inventory, and the oil flies from Umbria to your door within weeks of pressing.

The private preview on June 1 is the only time you’ll see 20% off. It doesn’t reopen. It doesn’t extend. When the subscriber window closes, the public presale opens at 15% off — and when that sells out, it’s done until 2027.

We produce a limited quantity. Last year sold out. This year we have Jury’s grove adding to the supply, but this is still a single-estate, hand-harvested release — not a volume play.

What you’re ordering

One estate. Two groves. One oil.

The 2026 SOLO EVOO will draw from two groves above Lake Trasimeno: Stijn’s original grove, which produced the 2025 Founders Exclusive, and Jury’s grove, managed by the national pruning champion. Both pressed the same day. Both cold extracted. Both lab certified before a bottle leaves Italy.

Flat rate $9.99 shipping. Free on orders over $90. We produce only what’s ordered — once it sells out, that’s the harvest done until 2027.

Full timeline and how it works →

The trees are flowering. The days are getting long. Paciano smells like warm stone and cut grass in the evening. October feels far away, but it always comes faster than you think.

Get on the list. Be first.

— Ricardo & Stijn, SOLO EVOO