Pomora Carmelo's Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 250ml

Note that this is the really good stuff - it isn't for adding to your baking but instead, for dunking your crusty sourdough into - or to mix with a little balsamic vinegar for an amazing dressing.

One sip of Carmelo’s olive oil and you are immediately transported to alfresco dining on a warm late summer’s night with the Mediterranean breeze gently whistling between your ears. And that is reflected in the olive oil; light and airy but with a richness of flavour generated from the volcanic soil of Mount Etna.

Just like his father before him, Carmelo is passionate about great tasting olive oil. With his family home located right next door to the frantoio in a small village just outside Mascalucia in eastern Sicily, Carmelo really does live and breathe olive oil. His Nocellara Etnea olive groves are rooted in the volcanic soil of the lower slopes of Mount Etna, soil which gives rise to a wonderfully distinctive olive oil that is light and airy but with a richness of flavour. Delicious!

Carmelo’s olive groves are clinging to the lower slopes of the imposing Mount Etna in Sicily, just outside the city of Catania. And what a beautiful location this is. Look upwards and you see Etna roaring in all its glory, look downwards and see the city fading into the turquoise, shimmering Mediterranean sea below. It is the warm Mediterranean climate and Etna’s volcanic soil that combine to provide such rich vegetation for Carmelo’s olives to prosper fully.

Carmelo and his family have been growing olive trees in this region of Sicily since just after the war in 1948 when Carmelo’s father, Antonino, realised the land where he was living was perfect for the cultivation of olive trees and so set up the frontoio or olive mill where they are still based today. Since following in his father’s footsteps in the mid 80s, Carmelo, his wife and two children now run this beautiful and rustic olive grove. Carmelo is incredibly passionate about olive trees and does much research into the scientific and nutritional value of olive oil. This, of course, is reflected in the highest quality of olive oil produced.