LOCATION AND CLIMATE

 

As you might expect, olives grown in cooler areas where there is more moisture (rainfall and dew) exhibit leaner, more restrained characteristics.  This doesn’t however mean that great oil can now be made in Iceland – you need a minimum amount of sunshine to make your Extra Virgin Olive Oil taste remarkable, similarly to tomatoes or stone fruit.

Olive trees are sensitive to winter freeze (the Casaliva cultivar is more resistant to cold, hence being grown in the Garda region).  It is also easier to farm organically where the climate is more stable and less chemical sprays are required to keep the trees healthy.

OLIVE MATURITY

 

Here’s the thing – all olives are green.  When they become fully mature, they turn black.
Olive maturity at the time of harvest is a major factor in flavour and quality: olives harvested earlier (green olives) feature more bitter, grassy characteristics, with lower yields and with the highest anti-oxidant content.  The oil is a much more intense green colour and has a longer shelf-life.  In terms of production, milling can take longer with green olives (a longer malaxation - the action of slowly churning milled olives to release droplets of oil - is needed and can be more complicated) but the results are far superior!  Don’t choose olive oil from over mature fruit: it lacks all the potential goodness and flavour.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL IN GROVE AND MILL

 

People who care passionately about what they make and follow it personally every day have the capacity to create products with far higher quality, with integrity, and that taste of where they come from.  They are also able to do this by caring for the environment they inhabit.

FRANTOIO DI RIVA BOX

This box contains 6 bottles of extra virgin olive oil made exclusively by Frantoio di Riva from groves on the banks of lake Garda.

Frantoio di Riva, 46°PARALLELO green label x 3 bottles (50cl)
Frantoio di Riva, 46°PARALLELO organic white label x 1 bottle (50cl)
Frantoio di Riva, 46°PARALLELO blue label x 1 bottle (50cl)
Frantoio di Riva, ULIVA Garda Trentino DOP x 1 bottle (50cl)

Frantoi - amphora
April 8, 2016 In Health

How can EVOO contribute to your general health?

Anecdotal evidence has told us for many years that a Mediterranean diet containing foods that are high in phytochemicals, namely fruits, vegetables and the abundant daily consumption of olive oil is beneficial to health, with distinctly lower rates of chronic diseases than those found in many developed countries in Europe and elsewhere. Only now we are in a position to benefit from more specific research to give us the reasons for this and to look at the future with more optimism than ever before. More and more research is pointing to Olive Oil, and in particular, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, as a major contributory factor in the prevention and treatment of a wide range of health issues. Also, genetic predisposition is arising as a predominant area of nutritional research to help identify different subgroups that may benefit from more intensive dietary intervention.

 

As early as 1977, Professor Angel Keys from the University of Minnesota published the results of extensive research which proved that olive oil is effective in reducing the risk of arteriosclerosis and heart attack, and we can even look way back in history to the ancient naturalist Gaius Pliny II who dwelt at length on the health benefits of olive oil and recognized the importance of it being “young, delicate and scented” as a remedy for many ailments. Today of course we have the benefit of evidence based scientific research to support these ideas and we know that newly pressed extra virgin olive oil contains oleocanthal, a natural anti inflammatory compound. More than this, experts across the world are now discovering more and more health benefits with evidence from exciting research projects, including hypertension, high cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, some types of cancer, Alzheimers disease, Type 1 diabetes and nutritional intervention for very low birthweight infants and pregnant women.