Row after row of grocery store products, ranging from basic everyday to gourmet and beyond can be overwhelming. Endless options abound filling the rows with everything from necessities to extravagances. One of the most stratifying of those necessities, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, straddles that culinary line. As far as Salvatore Bono is concerned, good oil is never an extravagance. It’s always a necessity. He should know, his family owned company Bono, also known as Bonolio, make some of the highest quality Sicilian oils on the market. As the largest single producer of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Sicily, everyone wants a piece. Well, a piece of bread, that is, once that bottle is cracked open.

Salvatore Bono stands in his olive oil factory in Sicily.

While the name may not be quite as well known as some of the big corporate producers, their products are everywhere. The process behind Bono’s olive oil is highly regulated by the Italian government. Even packaged in a line of proprietary bottles that prevent tampering, Bono might just be the best kept secret in Italy. Tucked into the rolling hills near Castelvetrano, of the famed bright green olives, the Val di Mazara holds Bono’s massive olive extractors. The family owned company has been private label bottling for years. With all new packaging and a network of almost 1,400 affiliated farms in the region, Bono is poised to blow up in the world of olive oil.

So why rebrand one of the highest quality olive oils on the market?

Founded in Sciacca in western Sicily in 1934, the Bono family business has been passed down through the generations. The rolling hillsides are filled with endless rows of olive trees, and the occasional citrus grove, and is still a testament to the ancient tradition of making olive oil. The Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forest Policies heavily regulates the Protected Designation of Origin, or PDO, certification.

The newly harvested olives going up the track to be pressed into Extra Virgin Bono olive oil.

So, what does this certification mean?

According to the Bono family, “To be PDO certified, the olives must be native to the region, provide a max 22% yield and follow organic processes. The entire process, from when the olives begin to grow to the day the oil is bottled, is strictly monitored by Agroqualità, a certifying body controlled by the Italian government.” Consider PDO a guarantee that only olives from the Val Di Mazara region are allowed to be included in Bono’s Extra Virgin Olive Oils. Even further, the factory where the pressing and bottling occurs all must be just as hyper local, picked and pressed within a very small window of time to ensure freshness.

Once bottled, a unique serial number is placed on the neck to allow for unheard of ease of traceability making sure that each bottle is as secure and authentic as possible.  

Similar to a vineyard, the terroir matters. The Val de Marza is considered a sort of grand crus with the some of the most coveted and superior olive varietals in the world. Those olives include Biancolilla, Nocellara del Belice and Cerasuola and make for the most high quality oil. Enter The smell of freshly pressed olive oil is in the air and Salvatore Bono, of Bono Extra Virgin Olive Oil, shrugs as if it’s just another day. For Salvatore and the rest of the Bono family it may as well be.

The Bono olive trees in Sicily.

Their Extra Virgin product is known for notes of fresh grass and spice indicating a high level of phenols. The verdant green liquid has viscous straw colored hues and a hint of ripening fruit. Unlike wine, olive oil is meant to be used within the same year its bottled. Fear not the smoking point, while the oil will smoke eventually so will many other oils and the clean Bono product holds up well to the high heat of a sauté pan or oven.

So how much can they produce oil?

Bono has the largest mill in Sicily. The “olive oil production [has] capacity of 5 tons per hour, four bottle/can machine lines with a total capacity of 18,000 bottles per hour and an olive oil stock capacity of 8,000 tons. This system allows us to export our superior oils not only throughout Europe, but also across the United States, Canada and Asia.”

The Bono family saw the relaunch as an opportunity to honor the past while savoring the present. The newest bottles are a collaboration with artist Alice Valenti who has done projects with esteemed Italian brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and high end appliance brand, Smeg. Valenti leaned into Sicily’s storied past and the Opera dei Pupi, which were also awarded UNESCO status in 2001 as a “masterpiece of the oral heritage of humanity.”

Two of the newest bottles from Bono's line of Extra Virgin Olive Oils

The Opera dei Pupi are champions, or paladins, illustrated on the bottles, brought to life through their stories and aligned with an oil that most reflects their nature. Get to know the champions below and celebrate the past with the future.

“The beautiful and valiant warrior Bradamante for Sicily PGI oil; the wise and courteous Regina Galerana for Val di Mazara DOP oil; the courageous and sincere Orlando for the Bono extra virgin olive oil; the strong and astute Marsilio, King of Zaragoza, for Valle del Belice PDO oil; the noble and generous Emperor Charlemagne for filtered and unfiltered Italian extra virgin olive oil; and the pure and daring warrior, Ideo, for unfiltered extra virgin olive oil.”