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)

September 30, 2018 In EVOO

In Season: 2018 Harvest

We are on the verge of the 2018 harvest here in Italy.  It’s the moment of truth as our producers are starting up their mills to ensure they are in perfect working order to receive the first fruit.  As those of you who follow us closely will know, we always select oils that derive from green olives so our harvest begins ahead of many.  This means far lower volumes, but in terms of quality, there is no comparison.

 

The 2018 season in Italy is looking very positive from where we are sitting.  I don’t say this lightly, it hasn’t been a simple growing season, the big freeze in February had a significant impact and some trees just haven’t born fruit as a result.  There is also the constant risk of the wretched olive fly, which is possible to combat with certain organic treatments but they are costly, so only the very best producers (yes, of course ours!) go to these lengths.

 

We had a long, wet winter and spring and this was important for the ground water levels and as such, the trees that have born fruit are laden.  The craftsmen we work with up and down Italy remain cautious however, it all depends on the next crucial weeks and until the olives are running through the mill, we won’t have the complete picture.

 

We wish the pickers and millers every success for the days, weeks and months of incredibly hard work ahead.  Waiting for those first divine tastes.