Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil: a 107-year family story
May 07, 2026
A Sicilian orchard, a party favor and a corporate lawyer who finally said yes.
Good things take time. Ours took 107 years.
My husband's family has been farming the same piece of land in southeastern Sicily since 1916. Back then, a hundred or so trees dotted the terraced hillsides. Today, 800 olive trees produce olive oil. Four generations. One recipe for an extraordinarily good olive oil that, until recently, almost no one outside the family had ever tasted.
How Pegaso EVOO was born.
We met in New York City in 2013. To impress me, he brought a little green tin of his family's olive oil. As a corporate lawyer, I was not easily beguiled. But one taste changed that. Grassy, peppery and alive in a way that made every bottle I'd bought at the grocery store feel like a sad, pale substitute.
Life went on. On each trip to Sicily, we continued to fill our suitcases with small tins of olive oil. We got married. We had our first son. And at each celebration, we gave away the family olive oil as small gifts — bomboniere — an Italian tradition of giving something meaningful to take home. Our friends and family kept asking where they could buy it. We kept saying we'd bring more next time. But it was never enough!
"Turns out saying yes was the easiest part."
That changed in 2023 when I finally said yes to making this real. And Pegaso EVOO was born! Not from a venture fund or a branding agency, but from a 100-year-old orchard, a bunch of people that share a love of Sicily and the belief that good olive oil tastes even better when shared.
Three Sicilian cultivars, one extraordinary oil.
What's in the bottle? Our Family Blend N.1 is a blend of three Sicilian cultivars that grow together on the same piece of land and are harvested together at peak ripeness:
- Biancolilla: delicate, fruity, low bitterness
- Nocellara Messinese: herbaceous, complex, full-bodied
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Tonda Iblea: Peppery finish, antioxidant-rich
Together they give you something you won't find mass-produced: brightness, complexity, and a finish that actually lingers. No blending from multiple countries or farms. No mystery origins. Just our trees, one harvest, one bottle.
Small by design. That's the whole thing.
In some years, we only reserve 200 or so bottles to sell. Any local farmers we work with are carefully selected for size and exceptional quality. We're small on purpose. We like it that way. Good things take time, and we've had 107 years of practice.
Ready to taste a century of Sicilian tradition?
