Although we've travelled all around Italy and Spain on previous trips, this was the first time we have been to an olive oil producer. Similar to wine, there are various olives which produce very different types of oil. Similar to wine, it seems everyone has their favorite type of olive and producer. Or more often than not, we learned they can buy from one of their neighbors, who can use part of this facility to make their own. This producer was highly recommended to us and as it turns out they import a great deal to the states. They've been producing olive oil since 1906 through four generations. Our host, who spoke 5 languages because she enjoyed learning them (including Chinese), was married to the son of the 4th generation.
She explained that the green grapes produce less juice but make for a much better olive oil, versus the red, which are also often used because the yield is higher, but not of the finest quality. The harvest is typically later than wine and we hit the middle of harvest time in mid-October. Similar to grapes, the first step of the process is to go through a de-stemmer. They then press the olive to make a paste, followed by a machine which pulverizes the olive to produce the oil. The oil then goes into steel vats, where it needs low light, 18 degree temperatures and no oxygen. It can be in the tanks for up to a year before it goes straight into a bottle and packaged to be sold.
They produce several different varieties from strong to light, which we tried and liked the medium flavor, which happened to be the"primo" variety. They also just started a line of preservatives which we bought a jar to try at home on bruschetta.
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