It Began With a Single Taste,
and a Contradiction.
In 2005, during a stay in Tuscany, Fil Bucchino tasted an olive oil unlike anything he had known before. He had been born in the land of olive oil itself, in the very region where quality was supposed to live, and still knew nothing of what it could actually be.
The oil was alive, complex, and immediate. A simple food that would later change how he understood a meal, a place, and even how a moment could be felt. It erased everything he thought he knew about olive oil.
A Feeling Worth Sharing.
Fil returned to the harvest year after year, learning from growers, tasters, agronomists, scientists, and millers.
He came to understand that olive oil is plentiful, but exceptional olive oil is rare. Every decision in the grove, at harvest, and in the mill can either reveal what the fruit is capable of or quietly diminish it.
In 2009, that pursuit became the first oil release.
“I wanted to grow the feeling. The oil was an attempt to recreate what I had experienced and share it with anyone willing to listen.”
Through a small reservation list, the oil sold out year after year. Around it grew a community drawn together by pleasure, curiosity, connection, and a deeper understanding of the land and people behind what they tasted.
Then the Contradiction Became Visible.
Andrea Pagliai, a longtime collaborator, friend, and master grower, showed Fil grove after grove being abandoned.
“How could something this extraordinary leave so much behind?”
Exceptional oil is slow. It requires patient care, skilled people, and living land.
But as demand grows, so does the pressure for greater quantities, higher speed, and lower prices. When a producer or place can no longer meet those expectations, it becomes easier to source elsewhere and preserve the story than to remain responsible for what made the oil possible in the first place.
The story can remain on the bottle long after the grove, the people, and the work behind it have been left behind.
Abandoned Grove was born from a different choice: the belief that exceptional things do not exist alone. They depend on exceptional places and exceptional people, and all three are worth protecting.
This Was Never About One Grove.
Across Tuscany and the Mediterranean, traditional olive groves are disappearing one at a time.
When a grove is abandoned, more than trees are lost. Land becomes vulnerable. Knowledge and skilled work disappear. Communities begin to weaken.
The Scale of It
4 million
Olive trees abandoned in Tuscany
440 million
Olive trees at risk across Italy
5.2 billion
Olive trees at risk worldwide
What disappears is the relationship between a place, the people who care for it, and the quality they create together.
Quality and Restoration Were Never Two Different Pursuits.
Exceptional oil becomes possible when skilled people, living land, and patient care remain in balance.
The oil created through that work, and shared with those who receive it, gives the grove and the people behind it a way to continue season after season.
The same principle extends across the land. Ground cover is maintained, habitats are protected, and native species are treated as part of the grove rather than obstacles to it.
Through LIFE Olivares Vivos+, independent research measures what returns when a grove is cared for as a living system: wild plants, birds, bats, pollinators, and beneficial insects.
Since 2014, the work has also created meaningful agricultural employment for people navigating mental health challenges, addiction recovery, or reintegration after incarceration. Fifty-seven people have taken part so far. Today, in collaboration with ASL (Azienda Sanitaria Locale), that work continues with approximately 4,000 hours of social agricultural work each year.
The grove returns. People return to meaningful work. Exceptional oil becomes possible.
Excellence Begins Where Compromise Ends.
Every harvest brings together growers, agronomists, millers, tasters, scientists, chefs, and artisans, each holding a different but essential part of the work.
Together, they make every decision in service of the oil, revealing the fullest expression of the grove and season for the people who will eventually receive it.
No two harvests ask for the same response. The expertise of everyone involved lies in knowing what to pursue, what to protect, and what to refuse.
A Life Across Disciplines.
Fil Bucchino came to olive oil through biomedical science and music, two worlds that taught him to pay attention differently.
One demanded evidence, precision, and an understanding of how individual parts shape the whole. The other taught him that mastery is not repetition, but interpretation: responding to a moment, a place, and the people gathered within it.
That idea remains central to his work. Like a live performance, each harvest carries its own energy and can never be repeated once it is gone.
His work spans the grove, the mill, the tasting room, professional kitchens, and the table, where oil becomes something shared.
Today, Fil is an internationally recognized olive oil expert, professional taster, educator, and judge. He is the only Canadian listed in Italy's National Directory of Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Experts.
He has taught and collaborated with Yale University, the Chianti Classico Consorzio, embassies, chambers of commerce, and leading voices across the olive oil world.
He also co-produced and hosted Obsessed with Olive Oil, the first feature-length documentary dedicated to olive oil quality, and later co-hosted The World of Olive Oil on PBS.
One Harvest at a Time.
2009
2009
The first early-harvest oil is shared under its original name, Adagio del Colle.
2010
The first grove is brought back into care.
2014
Social farming becomes part of the work in the groves.
2016
Abandoned Grove is named, and the philosophy enters public life through the first gatherings in Toronto.
2022
University and biodiversity collaborations deepen the scientific work surrounding the groves.
2023
More than five thousand trees have been restored to harvest. The early-harvest oil that began as Adagio del Colle, later Family Reserve, is renamed Founder's Reserve, honouring the original reservation list and those who believed from the beginning.
2024
Abandoned Grove becomes a Certified B Corporation.
2025
Membership formally launches, giving people a direct way to sustain the work and belong to it.
No Grove Abandoned.
Not a claim that the work is complete. It is the direction against which every decision is measured.
More groves remain to be restored and sustained. More skilled work must continue. More harvests must prove what patient care, human judgement, and living land can create together.
The Work Has Travelled
Beyond the Groves.
Abandoned Grove has entered public conversation through journalism, film, television, education, collaboration, and independent certification.
Featured In
The New York Times · The Globe and Mail · Olive Oil Times · Chatelaine · The Toronto Star · and others
On Screen
Obsessed with Olive Oil · The World of Olive Oil on PBS · Dolce HomeMade with David Rocco
Some Things Are Too
Extraordinary to Disappear.
The grove. The knowledge held by the people who tend it. The communities that form around the work. The oil at its fullest expression.
Abandoned Grove exists to keep them together.
We are growers, makers, tasters, dreamers, idealists, and custodians, united by the belief that quality is worth protecting and that the most meaningful things are created when people and place are allowed to thrive together.
We are grateful you found your way here.