Intoxicating scents of cardamom, ginger, rosemary and basil hover in Marina's rooms. The house is wrapped in the greenery of olive trees and cypresses accompany visitors to the entrance, where they are greeted by large terracotta jars and the princess's favorite roses. The oil, declined in a thousand Mediterranean scents, kept and distributed in small glass amphorae with the family crest, awaits the connoisseurs who arrive at the farm from all over the world in the tasting room. I am Marina Colonna's great oil enthusiasts were British, American, Australian and German. But French chefs also visit the princess's estate to get her precious rose oil, highly suggestive scent on fish-based dishes. Donna Marina driving her jeep personally accompanies the visit of the estate, today 160 hectares, 55 of which are olive groves, which extend on the hills of Molise, in the municipality of San Martino in Pensilis, a stone's throw from the sea of Termoli and near Ururi, an ancient Albanian village.
Inherited from his father Francesco, the estate had been a fief brought as a dowry in the mid-800s by a Caetani from Sannicandro to a Colonna, and initially covered more than 2000 hectares. Today the over 18 olive trees grown with great care and organic dictates are his pride. Then there are also wheat, sunflowers, chickpeas, lentils, hemp. Among the wheat hills, two small lakes created by the father many years ago are surprising. From the Leccino – the company “gran cru”, of an intense golden yellow colour, powerful and complex on the nose, enveloping and fresh on the palate -, at the peranzana – Marina Colonna's favorite cultivar, fragrant and spicy at the right point -, walking among the olive trees accompanied by faithful dogs, the varieties chosen and experimented by Marina's father are countless, today all of them can be tasted both as DOP oil in an amphora or in bottle, and as aperitif olives in elegant jars. The nobility is obviously at home with great discretion in the farmhouse where Marina Colonna spends most of the year.
It is a rural residence in small part used for hospitality. The tasting rooms where silver columns, symbols of the historic Roman family, are aligned high up on the ancient sideboards, welcoming a small army of oil amphorae ready to be served with white bread. Carpets and sofas form the background and add to the pleasure of the palate that of the gaze. However, Marina Colonna does not linger so much on aesthetics despite being a photographer and documentary maker. Left behind the family palace after her eighteenth birthday party, she remembers her, she traveled the world and gained experience with great artists before landing on the family estate and dedicating herself with great passion to her cultivars. She now confidently awaits the next harvest and expects that this year too will be good, ready to have the little amphoras that she herself designed inspired by a pendant from the Colonna curtain filled with new oil.
Marina Colonna Soc.Agr. Ltd
Masseria Bosco Pontoni
86046 S.Martino in Pensilis (CB)
t +39 0875 603006
t +39 0875 603009
info@marinacolonna.it
