Antico Frantoio Muraglia was born in Andria, capital of the Apulia oil region, five generations ago, but our real family patriarch has watched the seasons come and go for no fewer than 450 years – a majestic coratina olive-tree, a native cultivar whose wealth of polyphenols is almost unmatched among the 538 classified Italian varieties.Our history as oil producers begins with this green giant that stands tall over our olive groves – some 40 hectares in the uplands of Murgia. It was Savino Muraglia senior who bought this tree to press its olives for oil, defying all those who told him there was no fortune to be made from land and olives. As to who had the right of it, only time will tell!One thing for certain is that our tenacious great great-grandfather – cross-grained or "stubborn as a mule", as they say in Apulia where people don't mince words – did it his way and launched the long history of an oil which is now on gourmet shelves in forty countries. But many things have remained utterly unchanged in all this time, beginning with our promise to preserve the biodiversity of the agricultural landscape and to protect the plants of strategic importance for our supply, such as the olive trees themselves.We still pick our olives by hand and press them cold in the ancient stone press. Our goal is always to make the finest Italian extra virgin oil, absolutely without compromise. And of course, as we always have – stubborn as a mule! – to do it our way.