Olive blend: Leccino, Frantoio, Carboncella and others
In the Tuscia area of Lazio, where the olives cultivated by the Fattoria’s “farming friends”(1) grow, spring and summer where characterised – as throughout Italy – by high temperatures well above the seasonal averages and, initially, by severe drought. These weather conditions, however, prevented the olives from being attacked by any insects and/or mould. Luckily, the summer drought was interrupted by some rainfall at the end of August, which resulted in a good, abundant crop of healthy, high-quality olives. The harvest went smoothly with the participation of the farming families, helped when necessary by teams of Viallino olive pickers so that it was successfully completed before the end of October.
Tasting: the oil is a nice shade of green, slightly cloudy, with highlights that tend towards golden yellow at times. The nose detects a marked scent of green olives picked at the right degree of ripeness, the strong flavour if which is pleasantly savoured in the mouth, accompanied by aromatic notes of wild herbs (lesser calamint and thyme). It’s a well-structured oil, in which pungency and a slight hint of bitterness harmonise perfectly. On the palate it’s delicate, smooth and pleasantly persistent.
(1) The Fattoria, aided by the Famiglia Lo Franco Foundation, for over 12 years now, as we have already said, has been working to convert to Organic-Biodynamic agriculture the land (and naturally its owners!) near to that cultivated by La Vialla, in Tuscany, Lazio and Puglia; it is one of the Foundation’s main aims. From the collaboration with our “farming friends” we have chosen and “christened” two olive oils, l’Etruscòlo and la Murice, which aren’t grown at the Fattoria but are followed by its agronomists and by the Viallini, from the field to the olive mill, and checked with the same scrupulous analyses.