Olive blend: Ogliarola Garganica, Peranzana, Cellina
Also in Puglia, La Vialla’s “farming friends”(1) are committed to a healthier and more sustainable agriculture. The organic olive groves are regularly tended by the Viallini, both the agronomists and – from time to time – the workmen, who “go down” to Puglia to check on and lend a hand with the work. The big trees of this area are more demanding when harvest time arrives, but they are also hardier and more accustomed to the torrid heat. Here the spring rainfall was less persistent, and the olive trees were able to bring an abundant crop of healthy fruit to ripeness. As at the Fattoria, the olives are taken to the mill and crushed within 12 hours of picking; this ensures an extraordinary end result from an organoleptic point of view. The oil is then left to rest until Christmas before being bottled, so that the solid particles settle in the bottom; it is not filtered.
Tasting: this is the mildest of the Viallino oils, mellow, almost “velvety” in the mouth; the nose detects aromas that seem more mature, dried almond and hazelnut, and green notes of cabbage. The aftertaste is pleasantly spicy with a delicate touch of pepper.
1. The Fattoria, aided by the Famiglia Lo Franco Foundation, for over 13 years now, as we have already said, has been working to convert to Organic/Biodynamic agriculture the land (and its owners) near to that cultivated by La Vialla, in Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria and Puglia; it is one of the Foundation’s main aims. Some of the olives from the collaboration with our “farming friends” are used to produce two olive oils which have been “christened” l’Etruscòlo and la Murice; they aren’t cultivated by 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.