Le Tre Colonne

The people behind it

Le Tre Colonne is a family business. Salvatore Stallone, presented on the company website as CEO and master miller, has worked in olive growing for more than forty years and in 2022 received a career award from the Associazione Premio il Magnifico. His path has a turning point told by Businessonline in September 2026: in 2010, at a trade fair, a group of tasters told him his oil was "a disaster". Instead of selling it, Stallone began tasting other producers' oils, trained as a professional taster and as a mill technician with Giorgio Mori, and in 2013 acquired his own first mill.

His children work beside him. Michele Stallone, who grew up among the family olive trees, runs field production: pruning, fertilising, irrigation, treatments and harvest. Maria Stallone leads administration, bottling, sales and marketing, and is the contact for customers, distributors and importers in Italy and abroad.

Sources: Le Tre Colonne — Salvatore · Le Tre Colonne — Michele · Le Tre Colonne — Maria · Businessonline — «Il tuo olio è un disastro»: la storia di Salvatore Stallone (17 settembre 2026)

What they make

Le Tre Colonne makes extra virgin olive oil from grove to bottle, with no outside steps: the website describes cultivation, milling and bottling under one roof. For the 2025/26 season the company offers four selections: Favolosa, Ogliarola, Armonia and Coratina. Favolosa, Ogliarola and Coratina are named after the variety they come from; Armonia, already reviewed by Gambero Rosso in past vintages, completes the range.

The choice of single-variety Coratina is not new. According to Businessonline, as early as 2008 the company decided to bottle a pure Coratina, a choice the article calls "brave, if not reckless" at the time. Coratina is, in the company's words, the typical Apulian cultivar marked by bitterness and pungency, and the company itself describes its oils as structured, with a bitterness and pungency "that only the sun and the nearby sea can give". Part of the oil is also sold in three-litre bag-in-box packs.

Sources: Le Tre Colonne — sito ufficiale · Le Tre Colonne — Chi siamo · Businessonline — «Il tuo olio è un disastro»: la storia di Salvatore Stallone (17 settembre 2026) · Le Tre Colonne — Coltivazione · Gambero Rosso International — Le Tre Colonne

Ingredients and territory

The groves lie in the countryside of Giovinazzo, a short way from the sea, and hold more than 9,000 trees. The cultivation page lists five varieties: Coratina, the bitter and pungent Apulian cultivar; Ogliarola, a Bari-area variety with a softer profile; Favolosa (FS17), a recent variety with lighter traits; Bella di Cerignola, a cultivar from the north of the Bari area; and Nocellara, of Sicilian origin, with intense aromas.

Field work, overseen by Michele Stallone, includes pruning for balanced growth, targeted fertilising, mowing, irrigation when needed and monitored treatments. The olives are picked at what the company considers the ideal ripeness and reach the mill quickly. There, according to the website, they go through leaf removal, washing, crushing with a chilled pipeline, vertical malaxing for about 10-15 minutes without oxygen and at low temperature, decanter, separator and immediate filtering: a cold extraction on a Mori-Tem plant.

Sources: Le Tre Colonne — Chi siamo · Le Tre Colonne — Coltivazione · Le Tre Colonne — Michele · Le Tre Colonne — Frantoio

Recognition

The most recent recognition comes from Gambero Rosso: in the Oli d'Italia 2026-2027 guide, reported by greenMe in June 2026, Le Tre Colonne received the special award Olive Mill of the Year, and Businessonline covered it again in September. According to Businessonline it is the second time in six years that the Giovinazzo company has won this title, and not an isolated case: its labels had already been awarded on several occasions.

The list published by the company itself traces the series: from Gambero Rosso, Tre Foglie in several editions and the mill of the year title in 2017 as well; in the Flos Olei guide, scores of 99 out of 100 in several editions up to 2026; in the Slow Food guide, the Grande Olio mention in 2013 and 2014; and first prize at Olio Capitale in 2024 for an intense fruity Terra di Bari PDO. These last figures come from the company website, not from a guide's own page.

Sources: greenMe — I migliori oli extravergine d'Italia, la nuova selezione del Gambero Rosso (22 giugno 2026) · Businessonline — «Il tuo olio è un disastro»: la storia di Salvatore Stallone (17 settembre 2026) · Le Tre Colonne — I premi

Going there

The estate lies on provincial road 107, at kilometre 0.200, in Contrada Caldarola, in the countryside of Giovinazzo. According to its contact page it welcomes enquiries, appointments and visits, and answers Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm. On arrival there are two gates: the black one is for deliveries and the mill, the brown one leads to the offices and the shop; ring the intercom.

During harvest and milling the mill presses olives just in from the groves; at any time of year a visit should be arranged in advance by phoning the landline or writing to the address on the website, which also lists direct numbers for Maria, Salvatore and Michele. Giovinazzo, with its old town on the sea, is a few minutes away: mill and town fit easily into the same day.

Sources: Le Tre Colonne — Contatti · Le Tre Colonne — sito ufficiale

Products and flavours

Terra di Bari extra virgin olive oil

PDO · Oils and fats

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Olio di Puglia extra virgin olive oil

PGI · Oils and fats

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Puglian olive oil

Fruitiness, bitterness and pepperiness: exploring Puglian olive oils through flavour and place.

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Photo: N i c o l a / Flickr — CC BY 2.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

Local olive-oil producers

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Photo: Anna.Massini / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

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The place

Giovinazzo

The old town, harbour and cooking shaped by farming and fishing traditions. A centre on a rocky promontory, the cathedral and a rice, potato and mussel tiella.

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Photo: salviF / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

The region

Puglia