Grower · Paciano, Umbria
He did not plan to end up in Umbria. Stijn left a corporate career and began travelling slowly, with no fixed destination and no timeline. Then he arrived in Paciano, in the Trasimeno area of central Italy’s Umbria region. A land often called the green heart of Italy. Rolling hills, ancient olive groves, medieval villages. The light, the land, the people, the centuries-old art of making oil. He fell in love with all of it. He stayed.
The Grove
Under Stijn’s care, over 1,200 olive trees thrive across the estate. The trees are between one and two hundred years old, older than any living person and most institutions. They’ve survived bad harvests and good ones. Stijn knows their character.
The grove includes heritage varieties: Moraiolo, Leccino, Pendolino, Dolce di Agigia, Rosciola di Panicale, and Frantoio. Each brings its own character. Some offer bold, peppery notes. Others contribute a delicate, fruity balance. These ancient varieties are perfectly suited to Umbria’s rugged hills, where the combination of mineral-rich soil, altitude, and climate yields exceptional fruit.
Stijn’s passion lies not just in preserving these traditional cultivars but in regenerating the groves. He employs cover crops and integrates animals into the ecosystem, creating a closed-loop system that naturally fertilizes the trees and manages pests without synthetic inputs. He follows organic practices throughout. Quality above all else.
How He Decides When to Harvest
There is no fixed date. Stijn watches the season build: sun exposure, humidity, the way the window of ripeness opens and closes. As harvest approaches, he starts making oil for himself, tasting it, reading it. He checks the seed color inside the olive. When the taste is right and the seed tells him it’s time, he calls the crew.
The pick happens in the morning, in the cool of the day.
From Tree to Sealed Tank: The Same Day
The olives are driven 45 minutes to the mill and pressed the same day they’re picked. No storage. No waiting. The oil that comes out is vivid green, grassy, peppery. The kind that makes you cough, which means the polyphenols are intact.
It goes directly into nitrogen-sealed stainless steel tanks. Nitrogen displaces oxygen completely. The oil doesn’t degrade, doesn’t oxidize. It waits.
One Batch. One Bottling.
When the full harvest is ready, it’s bottled all at once. The entire year’s yield in a single run. Then FedEx picks it up and flies it to the US.
What arrives at your door is not shelf inventory. It’s this year’s oil, from this grove, bottled once, flown fresh.
What Stijn Gives Up
Early harvest means fewer olives have reached full size. The yield per tree is lower. The oil per kilo of fruit is lower. A later harvest from the same trees would produce significantly more oil.
Stijn knows this. He harvests early anyway. The math doesn’t work if you’re optimizing for volume. It only works if you’re optimizing for quality, and only if you are willing to accept less of something exceptional rather than more of something ordinary.
2026 Harvest
Presale is open.
The trees are in fruit now. In October Stijn will call the crew, and the pick will happen in the cool of the morning. Reserve before the pressing.