Frantoio Muraglia from Andria, the heart of Apulian oil
Frantoio Muraglia is an oil mill in Andria in Apulia, owned by the same family for five generations. The house became famous for the colorful ceramic jugs in which it bottles its extra virgin olive oil – the pressing takes place in their own mill, using olives from 40 hectares of their own groves.
Frantoio Muraglia presses extra virgin olive oil in Andria, a city on the edge of the Murgia that calls itself the capital of oil. Two varieties define the product range: the mild Peranzana and the robust Coratina. Anyone who has seen the colorful striped ceramic bottle already knows the house without realizing it – the rainbow has become its trademark.
Five generations in the city of oil
It started with a grandfather named Savino, who pressed olives in Andria. Today, his grandson, also named Savino Muraglia, runs the business in the fifth generation.
Andria is located in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, where the Apulian plains transition into the Murgia: a limestone plateau with thin soil, little rain, and plenty of sun. Whatever grows here must be able to cope with drought. The olive tree has been doing so for millennia, and around the city stand groves that are older than most of the houses in it.
40 hectares of these belong to the family. They cultivate the trees without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and between the rows, whatever grows naturally is allowed to stay. The true patriarch of the estate is not a human, but a tree: a Coratina that is about 450 years old, which was already standing when no one in Apulia was yet thinking about single-varietal purity.
Apulia provides more olive oil than any other region in Italy, and has for a long time. That is exactly where the difficulty lies for an individual operation: in an area where everyone makes oil, only those who do it differently stand out. Muraglia's answer to this was twofold – single-varietal purity in the jug and color on the outside.
What distinguishes the house from many others is having its own mill. Those who mill their own olives decide on the timing, and with olive oil, timing is almost everything.
Two varieties, two characters
At Muraglia, two main local varieties grow, and they could hardly be more different. Those who have a choice in the range are basically just deciding between these two.
The Peranzana comes from northern Apulia and is the milder of the two. Its oil is golden yellow with green reflections and tastes of ripe tomato, arugula, and radish, with a hint of artichoke in the background. It brings almost no bitterness and hardly any spiciness. It is suitable wherever the oil should not be the loudest guest: over fish, seafood, tomatoes, or young beans.
The Coratina is the opposite. The family calls it potente e verace—powerful and authentic. Its oil is deep green with golden reflections, spicy with dill, fennel, and artichoke, with a herbaceous note of hay and a peppery pungency that hits the back of the throat and makes some people cough. That is not a flaw, but its badge of honor.
It pairs with anything that has seen fire: grilled foods, braised legumes, bitter leafy salads, pasta with garlic. In Apulia, it is poured over fave e cicoria, the puree of fava beans with bitter chicory, and on friselle, the hard ring-shaped bread with tomato.
A simple question helps with the decision: Should the oil accompany the dish or add something to it? Those thinking of fish, vegetables, and salads choose the Peranzana. Those cooking grilled foods, legumes, and hearty cuisine choose the Coratina. And those who like both will end up with two bottles in the cupboard anyway.
There is still a third option: the denocciolato, for which the olives are pitted before milling. Without the pit, even the Coratina loses its edges and becomes a mild, clear oil – this is the route for anyone who previously thought olive oil was too bitter.
Twenty-four hours between tree and mill
Harvesting is done by hand. After that, every hour counts, because a picked olive begins to work as soon as it lies in the basket.
Therefore, no more than 24 hours pass between tree and mill. It is milled between granite stones and cold-pressed in an airtight environment so that as little oxygen as possible comes into contact with the paste. The shorter this chain and the less air involved, the greener and more herbaceous the oil tastes in the end – and the longer it stays that way.
This is exactly why you need your own press. Anyone who has to transport their olives to a third-party mill has to wait until a turn becomes available, and it is during this waiting time that what one tastes in the oil later occurs.
The jugs and the rainbow
The fact that Muraglia bottles its oil in ceramic initially had a sober reason: clay lets no light through, and light bleaches the fruitiness out of an olive oil faster than heat or time.
This protection turned into a trademark. The striped ceramic bottle with its rainbow bands remains the house classic to this day, and entire families of motifs have emerged over the years: dots, prickly pears, and in the Pop Art series, sardines, lobsters, and octopuses on a white background.
The jugs are handcrafted and fired in small workshops in Apulia. However, only two are still hand-painted: the striped bottle and the one with dots. For all other motifs, the design is applied as a print onto the finished glaze – with the dots, however, you can see every brushstroke individually, because no two spots are round in the same way.
In addition, there are the pragmatic containers: tin cans, which contain the same oil, just without the ceramic around them. The Frutti del Mediterraneo can, for example, is intended as a refill for everyone who has the jug on the table and wants to replenish it. In this series, green stands for the intensely fruity oil, blue for the milder one.
And those who want to give a gift opt for the jug: the oil is used up in a few weeks, but the ceramic remains. The yellow Mediterraneo ceramic bottle with its citrus fruits and prickly pear is the most eye-catching candidate for this.
Once a jug is empty, it is rarely discarded. Rinsed and dried, it can hold vinegar, wooden spoons, wildflowers, or the next oil from the can. It becomes a collector's item almost by itself, and whoever places two or three next to each other doesn't have a row, but a small family – same shape, same idea, each piece a little different.
What tasters say about the house
Muraglia appears regularly in Italian guides. Gambero Rosso and Slow Food feature the oils, and the Italian oil sommeliers of the F.I.S. have awarded them their highest rating, the 5 Gocce, the five drops.
The house is also listed internationally, including at Olive Japan. However, the company does not cite years for these awards, and we do not provide any that we cannot verify – the oils speak for themselves anyway.
One of the house's oils also bears the protection of a geographical indication: the Grand Cru Macchia di Rose is registered as an IGP. We do not carry this oil, but it shows how seriously provenance is taken here.
If you would like to browse our selection, you will find the jugs, cans, and special oils of the house here. And those who wish to compare will find other extra virgin olive oils from Italy, Spain, and Portugal with us.
