The underground oil mill
The ancient underground oil mill
The ancient underground oil mill is placed in Caprarica di Lecce, in Matteotti street and has been carefully restored by Greco family.
It tells a story that recalls Salento milling tradition and oil production.
Along the walls surrounding the oil mill, you can appreciate the traces left by the ‘zoccatori’, horizontal and parallel lines
overing entire wall surfaces that seem to enshround settings in a surreal feel and whisper of efforts and silences, of
veryday nature and suffering.
These are the symbols of the signs of time and memory that resurface from the past and tell of men who have made the history of this territory.
A stone arch that is carved with the date in which the oil mill was built, dating away back in 1835, towers over the access staircase.
Yon can be transported back to a time lost in he mists of time and this feeling is made even more great by the extraordinary dance of light beams that subtly enter the small vault cracks.
Tank, windlass, burr-stone, washbasins, wells, mangers take on a particular likeness in this evocative light and shadow merging.
Nachiro History
Nachiro oil: A tribute to origin and the deep bond with the Salento territory.
Greco family oil history is so ancient that even today, the farm oil mill, carefully restored, is placed in the historic centre of the village, just a few meters from the family-owned ancient underground oil mill.
The oil is named ‘Nachiro’ after the legendary figure of Nachiro (the oil mill master). The word derives from the Greek ‘Naùkleros’, the ship master.
In former times, helmsman was just the one who, during the winter season, also served as head of the oil mill, the Nachiro, exaclty and with almost magic skill, stored up and selected the best oil productions.
All production phases, from cultivation to milling and bottling, are carried out without using any synthetic chemical products.
Nachiro oil has a fundamental feature that few can boast: raw materials and transformation processes are exclusively farm-owned.
The oil is extracted under organic farming practices.
The olives are pressed within, and not later than, three hours of harvesting in the farm’s mill, by using a whole cold-pressing system with very low processing temperatures (25/28°C).
Nachiro oil is the result of a passion cultivated over time, with a constant commitment to sustainability and quality. It is a true excellence of Salento all to discover and enjoy and that can make convey the soul and history of a territory which is full of tradition.