IL CENSO

The Producers

Gaetano Gargano is in the process of reviving his family’s ancient estate “Il Censo” in the south central part of Sicily in the lofty hills outside the hamlet of Bivona near Palazzo Adriano (the site of the film “Cinema Paradiso”).  As part of reconstruction of the land around Il Censo, the Gargano family has begun harvesting olives from an ancient grove adjacent to the property, in a site called Chirullo.

The Land

In Chirullo, beside the vineyards bearing the Cataratto, Nero d’Avola and Perricone grapes, and along the hills planted to the ancient Tumminia grain (a type of durum wheat), Gaetano cultivates organically several varieties of olives: Biancolilla, Ceresuola, Murtiddara. The estate, isolated in the high altitude, rolling hills of the hamlet of Bivona in southwestern Sicily, produces a miniscule amount of exquisite olive oil from a grove of 100 organically farmed trees.