Mandranova Blends Hospitality and Olive Oil Craft in Southern Sicily

The family-run estate, located in the Palma di Montechiaro area of Agrigento, combines olive and almond production with hospitality. Per to Giuseppe Di Vincenzo, 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 stated, are an olive oil tour and a preparation class. The tour introduces guests to olive oil production and includes a guided tasting.

The preparation 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 crop, selected to represent the estate’s top expression each year. The Mandranova estate The producer characterized the extra virgin olive oil as medium-intensity and fruity, with herbaceous notes alongside touches of tomato and lettuce.

Going to In addition to tastings and cookery lessons, Di Vincenzo, 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.

Cooking class at Mandranova On the production side, Di Vincenzo stated Mandranova grows Sicilian native cultivars using integrated agriculture techniques and polyconic vase pruning. The olives are processed in a proprietary mill through mechanical cold extraction, Di Vincenzo told reporters, 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 .

According to Giuseppe Di Vincenzo Di Vincenzo, mandranova offloads 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. Going to Di Vincenzo, 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 savor. An olive oil tasting at Mandranova 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 crop season. Mandranova is located in Italy’s south, where growers have increasingly used agritourism to diversify takings 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 holding practices, local cuisine and the visitor experience.