Puglia Olive Oil Tours: Ancient Groves, Masserie & Mill Tastings

The short version: Puglia produces more olive oil than any other Italian region, and its plain between Ostuni, Fasano and Monopoli is home to thousands of monumental olive trees, some well over a thousand years old. An olive oil tour walks the groves of a masseria (fortified farm), visits its mill, often an ancient underground one, and ends with a guided tasting. From late October to December, it is harvest season and you can taste the peppery new oil, olio nuovo. Here is where to go and how to book.

At a glance

The monumental olive trees

Between Ostuni and Fasano, the Piana degli Ulivi Secolari is a landscape of huge, twisted olive trees growing among dry-stone walls and whitewashed masserie. Many farms still have a frantoio ipogeo, an underground mill carved into the rock where olives were once pressed by donkey-driven millstones in the warm, dark cellars. Further south in Salento, the Xylella disease has killed many old trees, so the Ostuni plain is now the place to see them.

How to taste olive oil

A guided tasting teaches you to warm the oil in a small cup, smell it, then sip and draw in air: good extra virgin oil should taste fruity, a little bitter and finish with a peppery catch in the throat. Puglia’s Coratina from around Andria is famous for that kick; Ogliarola is milder. Most tastings come with bread, olives and taralli. Combine it with wine; see Puglia wine tours.

Our pick: the Ostuni: Olive Oil Tasting Tour visits an olive farm near Ostuni for a guided tasting of its extra virgin olive oils.

Compare Puglia with Tuscany and Istria: the best olive oil tours in Europe.

Frequently asked questions

When is the olive harvest in Puglia?

From late October to December, when mills press the new oil, olio nuovo, which is greener and more peppery than oil later in the year.

What is a frantoio ipogeo?

An underground olive mill carved into the rock, used for centuries in Puglia because the stable warmth helped the oil flow.

Where can you see Puglia’s ancient olive trees?

On the plain between Ostuni, Fasano and Monopoli, where many masserie run grove walks and tastings.

Book a Puglia olive oil tour

Compare Puglia olive oil tastings and mill tours, or see more Puglia food and wine experiences.