Il Casolare Olive Oil: Whose It Is, and What's Inside
Il Casolare olive oil is a good example of a small confusion that changes what you end up buying. Most people meet it as a brand — a squat bottle of cloudy green oil with a farmhouse name on it — and assume that name belongs to a company. It does not. Il Casolare is one of four product lines made by Farchioni Olii S.p.A. in Umbria, and it is specifically the unfiltered line. That matters, because within the line the variants differ on the two things a careful buyer most wants settled: whether the olives are Italian, and whether the oil is organic. This article works from Farchioni's own pages and from the printed label, and sets out which is which.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- Il Casolare is a product line, not a company. It is made by Farchioni Olii S.p.A. of Giano dell'Umbria, Perugia, which the family says has been producing since 1780. Farchioni's site organises its oils into four lines: Farchioni, Il Casolare, Le Selezioni and Alta Ristorazione.
- Il Casolare is the unfiltered line. Every variant in it is an unfiltered extra virgin olive oil, which is why the bottle looks hazy and why sediment settles at the bottom.
- The variants are not interchangeable on origin. The base Unfiltered Extra Virgin declares its country of origin as “Produce of the EU” on the printed label — not Italy. Two variants in the same line, the Organic 100% Italian and the 1780 New Harvest, do carry a 100% Italian claim.
- Ingredients are a single line: extra virgin olive oil. Nothing else, on the base variant.
- Farchioni publishes sensory descriptors — the base oil is rated medium fruity, low bitter, low spicy — but we could find no free acidity, peroxide value or polyphenol figure on either of its live sites or in the label text reproduced by retailers.
- Sidr & Stone does not publish a polyphenol figure either. Our oil is single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest outside Marrakech, and we would rather write that plainly than imply a number.
Il Casolare Is a Line, Not a Company
The maker is Farchioni Olii S.p.A., registered at Via B. Buozzi 10, 06030 Giano dell'Umbria, in the province of Perugia. That address appears on Farchioni's own site and on the manufacturer field of retail listings, which is the simplest way to confirm you are looking at the right entity — “Il Casolare” is Italian for a country farmhouse and is a common enough name that unrelated restaurants and agriturismi use it too. If your search is about olive oil, Farchioni is who you want.
Farchioni runs two live sites in parallel: oliofarchioni.it, which carries the corporate product catalogue, and farchioni1780.com, a direct-to-consumer shop. Both list Il Casolare as a line rather than a standalone brand, and the shop's own product data records the vendor as Farchioni and the product type as “Olio Il Casolare”. The 1780 date is the family's own account of its history, and we report it as such rather than as an independently established fact.
One market claim reproduced on retail listings is worth handling carefully: Il Casolare is described as the number one unfiltered oil in Italy, sourced to Nielsen data for Italy in 2020. That is a sales-volume statement about a particular year, and a dated one — it says the line sells well, not that it is the best oil in the category. We would treat it the same way whoever published it.
The Range, Variant by Variant — and Where the Origin Claim Changes
This is the section that decides which bottle you should pick up. Farchioni lists the Il Casolare line as a family of unfiltered oils, and the differences between them sit in three places: organic status, origin claim, and whether anything has been added.
| Il Casolare variant | Organic? | Origin claim | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unfiltered Extra Virgin | No | Produce of the EU on the label | The core seller; medium fruity, low bitter, low spicy |
| Unfiltered Extra Virgin Intense Fruity | No | Not stated on the product page | The more assertive version of the core oil |
| Unfiltered Extra Virgin Organic | Yes | Not stated on the product page | Organic certification without an Italian origin claim |
| Unfiltered Extra Virgin Organic 100% Italian | Yes | 100% Italian | Both claims together; described as emerald green |
| Unfiltered 100% Italian 1780 New Harvest | No | 100% Italian | New-harvest release |
| Unfiltered Extra Virgin Novello | No | Not stated on the product page | Novello — the first oil of the season, cloudy by design |
| Flavoured organic unfiltered oils | Yes | Not stated on the product page | Basil, lemon, red pepper, garlic and red pepper, white truffle |
Two of those are genuinely interesting. Novello is the Italian tradition of bottling the very first pressing of the season and drinking it young, and an unfiltered novello is the most vividly green, grassy, throat-catching oil most people will ever taste. And the Organic 100% Italian variant is the only one in the line that stacks a formal organic certification on top of a single-country origin claim — which, if either of those things matters to you, makes it the one to reach for rather than the base bottle.
“Produce of the EU” and “100% Italian” Inside One Line
The base Il Casolare bottle sold in the UK declares its country of origin as “Produce of the EU”. That is a lawful and accurate declaration, and it means the oil is a blend of olive oils from more than one European Union member state. It does not mean the oil is Italian, and an Italian name, an Italian company and an Italian address on the back of the bottle do not change that — the origin field is the origin field.
None of this is a criticism of Farchioni, which declares exactly what the rules require and offers 100% Italian variants alongside for shoppers who want them. It is a criticism of how quickly a reader assumes. If you want Italian olives, look for the words on the origin line, not the words in the brand name. Our guide to what “Italian” actually means on an olive oil bottle covers the labelling law behind this in full, including how the multi-country declarations are worded.
It is worth adding that a multi-origin blend is not automatically a worse oil. Blending is how a large producer holds a flavour profile steady from year to year, and a well-made EU blend can be perfectly good extra virgin. What you lose is traceability — and with it the ability to repeat a bottle you liked, because the constituent oils can change without a word on the label changing.
Unfiltered at Supermarket Scale
Unfiltered oil is a genuine style choice with a genuine cost. Filtration removes the fine fruit solids and residual water that make an oil cloudy; leaving them in preserves more of the aroma of freshly crushed olives, and it also leaves in material that will eventually ferment and settle. That is why Il Casolare's own label tells you to expect sediment at the bottom and to shake the bottle before use. Our article on unfiltered versus filtered olive oil works through the full trade-off.
Running that style as a mass-market line, rather than as a small estate release, is the part worth noticing. An unfiltered oil rewards turnover: the faster it moves from tank to bottle to kitchen, the less the trade-off costs you. So the practical advice for a shopper is the same as it would be for any cloudy oil, regardless of who made it — buy it where it sells quickly, store it away from light and heat, and use it rather than saving it.
The label also carries a small piece of genuinely useful guidance that many brands omit: the oil may solidify and turn cloudy below about 10°C, which is normal, has no effect on quality, and reverses at room temperature. Cold-clouding worries people who have never seen it before, and it tells you nothing bad about the oil.
What Farchioni Publishes, and What It Doesn't
Farchioni publishes more sensory information than most large producers: each Il Casolare product page carries fruity, bitter and spicy ratings, and the base oil is rated medium fruity with low bitterness and low pungency. It also publishes the mandatory grade wording, the ingredient list, full nutritional values and a QAS certification covering quality, environment and safety, audited by an independent certification body. What it does not publish is chemistry.
| Detail a buyer might want | Il Casolare (Farchioni) | Sidr & Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Grade | Published — unfiltered extra virgin | Published — unfiltered extra virgin |
| Sensory profile | Published — fruity, bitter, spicy ratings per variant | Not published as a rating scale |
| Ingredients | Published — extra virgin olive oil, single ingredient | Published — olive oil, single ingredient |
| Country of origin | Varies by variant — Produce of the EU, or 100% Italian | Published — plains outside Marrakech, Morocco |
| Harvest date | Not published | Published — single harvest, once per season |
| Free acidity | Not published | Not published |
| Peroxide value | Not published | Not published |
| Polyphenol content | Not published | Not published |
| Certified organic | Yes, on the organic variants | Organically grown, not certified organic |
Note the last row, because it is a straightforward point to Farchioni. Their organic variants hold a formal certification that we do not. Our olives are grown without synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides, but we do not hold the certificate and we describe it honestly rather than borrowing the word.
One line on Farchioni's shop deserves a precise reading. The Organic 100% Italian variant is described as rich in polyphenols. That is a descriptive statement rather than the authorised European health claim, which is a narrower thing with numeric conditions attached. Under Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, the claim “olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress” may be used only for olive oil containing at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives (for example oleuropein complex and tyrosol) per 20 g of olive oil, and in order to bear the claim, information must be given to the consumer that the beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 20 g of olive oil.
| Requirement under Reg. (EU) 432/2012 | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| At least 5 mg hydroxytyrosol and derivatives per 20 g of oil | A measured content threshold, not a general antioxidant statement |
| Derivatives named as e.g. oleuropein complex and tyrosol | A defined fraction — not the same as total polyphenol content |
| Consumer must be told the effect comes from 20 g daily | An information duty that travels with the claim |
The distinction that matters to a shopper: a total polyphenol figure is not the same measurement as the regulated hydroxytyrosol-and-derivatives fraction, so “rich in polyphenols” and the authorised claim are not equivalent statements. Neither Farchioni nor we publish either number. If you want to understand what these compounds are and why fresh oil has more of them, our article on olive oil polyphenols goes into it.
The Objections Worth Raising
“Unfiltered means fresher, so it must be better.” Unfiltered means less has been taken out, which is not the same as fresher. A cloudy oil that has sat in a warm shop for a year is worse than a filtered oil pressed last month. Unfiltered is a style with a shelf-life cost attached, and it pays off when the oil is used young.
“Produce of the EU means it's cheap bulk oil.” It means the origin is not declared as a single country. That is a loss of information, not evidence of poor quality, and a blended extra virgin still has to meet the same grade limits as any other extra virgin. Judge the missing information for what it is: a limit on what you can verify, not a verdict.
“It's the best-selling unfiltered oil in Italy — doesn't that settle it?” No. A market-share figure, dated to 2020 and sourced to a retail measurement service, tells you what sells. Popularity and quality correlate loosely at best in this category, which is precisely why grade, origin and freshness are worth reading for yourself. For a method you can apply to any bottle, see our guide to choosing a quality olive oil.
Why Sidr & Stone
We are an unfiltered producer too, so this comparison is unusually close. The difference is scale and what scale allows you to say. Farchioni bottles a consistent unfiltered oil at national volume; we press one grove's fruit once a year and can therefore tell you exactly whose trees it came from.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside 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 — a small, limited batch; once the season's pressing is gone, it is gone until next year.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma and polyphenols preserved.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, and it may show natural sediment.
- 100% natural — a single ingredient, no additives.
- Dark glass with a gold label — protective packaging against light.
- Halal certified.
- 10% of profits to charity, across every product we sell.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be the very claim this article warns against. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, that we publish no polyphenol figure and hold no organic certificate, and that the evidence of the care is in the taste, the colour and the size of the season's small batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who makes Il Casolare olive oil?
Farchioni Olii S.p.A., based at Giano dell'Umbria in the province of Perugia, Italy. Il Casolare is one of four product lines Farchioni publishes, alongside Farchioni, Le Selezioni and Alta Ristorazione.
Is Il Casolare olive oil Italian?
The company is Italian. The oil depends on the variant: the base Unfiltered Extra Virgin declares “Produce of the EU” on the label, while the Organic 100% Italian and the 1780 New Harvest variants carry a 100% Italian claim.
Why is Il Casolare olive oil cloudy?
Because it is unfiltered. The fine fruit solids and residual water that filtration would remove are left in, which makes the oil hazy and leaves sediment at the bottom of the bottle. The label advises shaking before use.
Is sediment in Il Casolare a fault?
No. In an unfiltered oil, sediment is olive matter rather than a defect, and it is expected. Separately, the oil may solidify and cloud below about 10°C, which is also normal and reverses at room temperature.
What does Il Casolare taste like?
Farchioni rates the base unfiltered oil as medium in fruitiness with low bitterness and low pungency, and describes it as balanced and slightly fruity. It is positioned as an everyday oil rather than a robust finishing oil.
Does Farchioni publish a polyphenol figure for Il Casolare?
Not that we could find on either of its live sites or in the label text reproduced by retailers. Nor does it publish free acidity or peroxide value — which is the category norm rather than an outlier, and we do not publish a polyphenol figure for our own oil either.
Where can I buy Il Casolare olive oil?
It is stocked by UK online grocers and by Italian and European retailers, and Farchioni also sells directly through its own online shop.
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
Il Casolare is a competently made unfiltered extra virgin from a long-established Umbrian producer, sold at a scale that requires blending. Farchioni declares what the rules require it to declare, publishes more sensory detail than most of its peers, offers certified organic and 100% Italian variants for shoppers who want them, and does not overclaim on the base bottle. There is nothing here to be suspicious of.
The single most useful thing to take away is the one this article opened with: the name on the front is a line, and the answer to “is it Italian?” lives on the origin line of the back label, where it differs between variants of the same line. Read that field before the brand name and you will not be caught out — by this producer or any other.
If traceability to a single grove is what you are after, that is the whole basis of what we do. Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest — 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 Farchioni Olii S.p.A.'s publicly stated product information and the printed label text for Il Casolare at the time of writing; specifications, ranges, origin declarations and brand practices may change, and readers should check current sources and the label in front of them. Comparisons are made in good faith and in fair terms. 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.