Capezzana Olive Oil: What the Estate Actually Publishes
Capezzana olive oil comes from a estate far better known for its wine, which is the first thing worth saying about it. Tenuta di Capezzana sits at Carmignano, in the province of Prato, and most of its website is given over to Carmignano DOCG, Vin Santo and the Contini Bonacossi family. The oil gets a single product page. What makes it worth an article anyway is that the estate does something most of its Italian peers do not: it publishes a downloadable technical sheet with actual measured figures on it. This piece sets out every number on that sheet, what the mill does, what the estate carefully does not claim — and one figure its own pages contradict each other on.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- There is exactly one Capezzana olive oil. It is called Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the current vintage published is 2024, and the estate lists no other oil.
- The blend is Moraiolo-led. The estate states the varieties as "Mostly Moraiolo; Frantoio, Pendolino and Leccino" — the classic central-Tuscan quartet. No percentages are published.
- Capezzana publishes real chemistry, which is unusual. The 2024 technical sheet gives acidity 0.20%, peroxides 6 me/kg and tocopherols 283 mg/l. Most Italian estates of this size publish nothing at all.
- They mill on site, within 24 hours. The estate states the olives are "pressed within 24 hours of harvesting in the estate's modern mill", by soft centrifugation, and hand-picked.
- There is no PDO or PGI claim on the oil. No Toscano IGP, no DOP — only "production area: Carmignano", which is a geographic description, not a certified designation. Carmignano DOCG is a wine appellation and does not extend to the oil.
- One figure does not agree with itself. The English product page states acidity of 0.1%, while the Italian and German pages and both 2024 technical sheets state 0.2%. Take the sheet.
What Capezzana Publishes About Its 2024 Oil
The useful document is not the product page but the PDF linked from it, headed Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and dated to the 2024 vintage. It is one page and it carries more measured information than most olive oil sold anywhere at any level. Here it is in full.
| Parameter | Published value (2024 vintage) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vintage | 2024 | Stated on the product page and the sheet |
| Production area | Carmignano (PO) | A place, not a protected designation |
| Varieties | Mostly Moraiolo; Frantoio, Pendolino and Leccino | No percentages published |
| Olive oil maker | Tenuta di Capezzana | They make it themselves |
| Free acidity | 0.20% | Well inside the 0.8% extra virgin ceiling; no method stated |
| Peroxide value | 6 me/kg | Comfortably inside the 20 meq O₂/kg limit |
| Tocopherols | 283 mg/l | Vitamin E compounds — not polyphenols |
| Organic certification | "Yes" | Certifying body not named on the sheet |
| K232 / K270 / ΔK | Not published | |
| Total polyphenols (mg/kg) | Not published | |
| Harvest dates | Not published | Only "within 24 hours" of picking |
Two of those rows deserve a word. An acidity of 0.20% is a quarter of the legal extra virgin ceiling, and a peroxide value of 6 is well under a third of the limit — both are the numbers of a carefully made oil, though both are also single-batch figures with no method or laboratory named beside them. And the tocopherol figure is easy to misread: tocopherols are the vitamin E family, they are not the phenolic compounds that give an oil its bitterness and peppery finish, and 283 mg/l is not a polyphenol result. If you want a polyphenol number from Capezzana, there isn't one. Our guide to olive oil polyphenols explains why the two are so often confused.
Hand-Picked, and Milled Within Twenty-Four Hours
Two process claims on the Capezzana pages carry real weight, and both are the kind of thing that separates a good oil from an ordinary one long before any laboratory sees it.
The first is that the fruit is picked by hand. The estate's olive-mill page states that "the hand-picked olives from our groves are transformed into extra virgin olive oil" there. The second is speed: "The olives are pressed within 24 hours of harvesting in the estate's modern mill." Olives begin to ferment and degrade the moment they leave the tree, so the gap between picking and milling is one of the few variables that cannot be recovered later.
The mill itself was rebuilt in 2024 with support from Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the estate publishes the equipment list: a horizontal centrifugal extractor (a Superdecanter Euro X30), a Siemens PLC control panel prepared for Industry 4.0, a six-container filtration housing and a two-stage stainless steel filtration trolley. One caution for anyone reading the technical sheet: the line "OIL MILL: Officine Meccaniche Toscane" names the manufacturer of the machinery, not an outside miller. The same sheet says "Olive oil maker: Tenuta di Capezzana". They press their own fruit.
What is not published anywhere is a temperature. The estate says "the low temperature and speed of processing" produce the aromas it wants, and the Italian sheet describes the process as a continuous cold cycle — but no figure in degrees appears, and no "cold extracted" or "first cold pressing" claim is made. Those two phrases are legally capped at 27 °C, as we set out in our guide to what cold-pressed olive oil actually means; Capezzana simply does not invoke them.
The Orciaia: Why the Oil Is Not Centrifuged Twice
The most distinctive thing Capezzana publishes about its oil is also the least technical-sounding. After extraction, the estate says, "the oil then decants in the historic orciaia adjacent to the mill, according to the ancient system that avoids a second centrifugation".
An orciaia is a room of large unglazed terracotta jars — orci — traditionally used across Tuscany to hold new oil while the suspended solids settle out under gravity. The alternative is to run the oil through the separator a second time, which is faster and gets you a clearer bottle sooner. Letting it stand instead is slower and takes space, but it is gentler: every additional mechanical pass introduces agitation, and agitation introduces oxygen.
The estate does not say whether the oil is then filtered before bottling, and the 2024 mill investment did include filtration equipment, so we are not going to assert either way. What it does say is that the second centrifugation is skipped, and that is a specific, checkable process choice rather than a mood. If you want the argument about what settling and filtering actually change, our comparison of unfiltered and filtered olive oil covers it.
One Number, Three Answers
Reading the same product in three languages turned up something worth flagging, because a reader comparing bottles will only ever see one of these pages.
| Where the figure appears | Free acidity stated |
|---|---|
| Italian product page | 0,2% |
| German product page | 0,2% |
| English product page | 0,1% |
| Italian technical sheet, 2024 | 0,2% |
| English technical sheet, 2024 | 0,20% |
Four sources say 0.2%. One says 0.1% — and it is contradicted by the English-language PDF it links to on the same page. This is almost certainly a typographical error rather than anything else, and it makes no practical difference: both figures are excellent and both are far inside the extra virgin ceiling. But it is a useful illustration of a general point. A number on a marketing page is not the same class of object as a number on a signed specification, and when the two disagree the specification is the one to trust.
What Capezzana Does Not Claim — Including a PDO
The absences here are as informative as the disclosures, and one of them is a point of real credit to the estate.
There is no protected designation on the oil. No Toscano PGI, no DOP, nothing. The spec table gives "production area: Carmignano", which is simply where the groves are. This matters because Capezzana's wines carry denominations prominently — Carmignano DOCG, Barco Reale DOC, Ghiaie della Furba IGT — and it would be very easy for a writer to slide those across onto the oil. The estate does not do that, and neither should anyone describing it. Carmignano DOCG is a wine appellation.
The organic certifier is not named on the oil pages. The technical sheet says "Organic certification: Yes" and the product page calls the oil "strictly organic", but the certifying body appears only on the estate's company page, which is otherwise about the vineyards. That is a small gap in an otherwise good disclosure.
Bottle sizes are not published. The estate's own shop runs on a separate domain that is currently password-locked and offline for maintenance, so no format, and no availability, can be confirmed from anything live.
And no oil awards are published — the awards block on the products page lists wine scores only.
As for heritage: the estate publishes a striking claim, that a parchment in the Florence state archive dated to 804 AD shows olives and vines already being grown at Capezzana. We report that as the estate's own account rather than as a fact we have checked, which is the right way to treat any "oldest" or "since" claim.
How It Compares, Honestly
Set against the Italian estate cluster, Capezzana sits well above the middle. Barbera, Baroncini, Galantino, Frantoi Cutrera, Olio Roi and Domenica Fiore all publish essentially no chemistry on their oils. Capezzana publishes three figures and a downloadable sheet. It does not, however, reach the standard set by Entimio, another Tuscan producer, which publishes a full third-party laboratory certificate including a total polyphenol result.
| What a careful buyer looks for | Capezzana (2024) | Sidr & Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Named single estate | Yes — Carmignano, Prato | Yes — one grove near Marrakech |
| Cultivars named | Yes — Moraiolo, Frantoio, Pendolino, Leccino | Not published |
| Cultivar percentages | Not published | Not published |
| Vintage / harvest year | Yes — 2024 | Single harvest, stated |
| Free acidity | 0.20% | Not published |
| Peroxide value | 6 me/kg | Not published |
| K232 / K270 | Not published | Not published |
| Total polyphenols (mg/kg) | Not published | Not published |
| Milled on site | Yes — own mill, within 24 hours | Cold-pressed within hours of harvest |
| Organic status | Certified organic; body not named on the oil pages | Organically grown, not certified |
| PDO / PGI | Not claimed | Not claimed |
| Halal certification | Not published | Yes |
We have put our own row in honestly, including the four lines where Capezzana tells you more than we do. They publish an acidity figure and a peroxide value; we do not. They name their cultivars; we do not. Those are real advantages and we are not going to talk around them.
Why Sidr & Stone
What this article has really been measuring is disclosure — how much of what a producer knows about its own oil actually reaches the person buying it. Capezzana does better than most of its neighbours on that score. Here is where we stand, stated the same way.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove near Marrakech, Morocco; no blending across origins
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, or herbicides
- Single harvest — small, limited batch; once the season's pressing is gone, it's gone until next year
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma, and polyphenols preserved
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, may show natural sediment
- 100% natural — single ingredient, no additives
- Dark glass with gold label — protective packaging against light
- Halal certified
- 10% of profits to charity — a brand-wide commitment
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US
We do not publish a free acidity figure, a peroxide value or a polyphenol result for our olive oil, because the first harvest has not been through a laboratory yet. Capezzana publishes two of those three. When ours are measured they will be published with the certificate beside them, and not a day before.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is a better olive oil than Capezzana's — on published evidence, that is not a claim anyone could support in either direction. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown, unfiltered, and cold-pressed within hours of a patient harvest, and that the evidence of that care is in the colour, the taste, and the size of the season's batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Capezzana olive oil?
It is a single organic extra virgin olive oil made by Tenuta di Capezzana, a wine and olive estate at Carmignano in the province of Prato, Tuscany. The current published vintage is 2024, and the estate lists no other oil.
What olives is Capezzana olive oil made from?
The estate states the varieties as "Mostly Moraiolo; Frantoio, Pendolino and Leccino" — the four cultivars most associated with central Tuscany. It does not publish the percentages of each on any current page or technical sheet.
Is Capezzana olive oil DOP or IGP?
No. The estate makes no protected designation claim for its oil — no Toscano PGI, no DOP. The spec table gives only "production area: Carmignano", which is a geographic description. Carmignano DOCG and Barco Reale DOC are wine appellations and do not apply to the oil.
What is the acidity of Capezzana olive oil?
0.20%, according to both the Italian and the English 2024 technical sheets and the Italian and German product pages. The English product page states 0.1%, which contradicts the English PDF it links to. Either way it sits far inside the 0.8% extra virgin ceiling.
Is Capezzana olive oil organic?
The estate says yes — the 2024 technical sheet records "Organic certification: Yes" and the product page describes the oil as strictly organic. The certifying body is not named on the oil pages or the sheets; it appears only on the estate's separate company page.
Does Capezzana mill its own olives?
Yes. The estate states the olives are pressed within 24 hours of harvesting in its own mill, and the 2024 technical sheet names Tenuta di Capezzana as the olive oil maker. The "Officine Meccaniche Toscane" line on that sheet refers to the mill equipment manufacturer, not an outside miller.
What is an orciaia?
A room of large unglazed terracotta jars used in Tuscany to let new oil settle under gravity. Capezzana says its oil decants in the historic orciaia beside the mill, "according to the ancient system that avoids a second centrifugation" — one fewer mechanical pass, and one fewer opportunity for oxygen.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
Capezzana's oil is the sideline of a wine estate, and it would have been easy for the estate to treat it as one — a page of Tuscan adjectives and nothing to check. Instead there is a dated technical sheet with an acidity figure, a peroxide value and a named set of cultivars on it, and a mill page that says exactly what machinery was installed and when. Against the Italian brand cluster, where publishing nothing at all is the norm, that is genuinely creditable.
It is not the top of the category. No polyphenol figure, no K-coefficients, no named laboratory, no harvest dates, no certifier named on the oil, and one acidity number that argues with itself across two of the estate's own pages. But a reader who downloads that sheet knows more about what is in a bottle of Capezzana than they will know about almost any oil on a supermarket shelf.
If you take one habit from this article, take the habit of clicking through to the specification rather than reading the paragraph above it. That single click is what turned up the discrepancy — and it is what our guide to choosing a quality olive oil asks you to do on every bottle, alongside our wider looks at Tuscan olive oil and Italian olive oil generally.
Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil is single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown, unfiltered extra virgin and pressed within hours of one patient harvest — and is available to pre-order. First harvest, estimated shipping from November 2026. Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
Disclaimer: This article describes what Tenuta di Capezzana published about its olive oil at the time of writing; vintages, specifications and brand practices change, and readers should check the estate's current technical sheet. Comparisons are made in good faith and in fair terms. References to Tenuta di Capezzana describe publicly available information and are not affiliated with or endorsed by the estate. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.