Cellina di Nardò Olives
The small, hardy oil olive of the Salento in Puglia, and one of the old varieties at the heart of the Xylella crisis.
The Cellina di Nardò is a small, hardy oil olive of the Salento, the deep south of Puglia. With the Ogliarola, it long carpeted the Salento’s vast, ancient groves, giving a fruity, characterful oil. It is also, sadly, one of the varieties hit hardest by Xylella fastidiosa, the bacterial disease that has devastated southern Puglia’s old olive trees since 2013.
- Origin
- Salento, southern Puglia · Italy
- Type
- Oil olive
- Colour
- Green to black
- Size
- Small
- Flavour (oil)
- Fruity, characterful
- Note
- Hard-hit by Xylella
- Best for
- Robust southern oil
An ancient olive under threat
The Salento’s landscape was, for centuries, an ocean of monumental olive trees — many of them Cellina di Nardò and Ogliarola — pressing a fruity, robust oil. The variety is hardy and productive, well suited to the hot, dry heel of Italy.
Since 2013 the Salento has been ravaged by Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterial pathogen spread by insects that has killed millions of old olive trees, Cellina di Nardò among the worst affected. Replanting now favours resistant varieties. It is a sobering reminder that even a 2,000-year-old olive landscape is not invulnerable — and worth knowing when you see “Salento” oil.