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)

January 25, 2019 In Italophile

Our Story as told by the Daily Mail

We were absolutely blown away by the coverage we received in the press this year.  This article in the Daily Mail just knocked us off our feet.


Published 29 November 2018

Elizabeth and Kasimir Berger were Londoners through and through. All of this changed when they left their corporate careers behind in 2013 in search of the highest quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a life in Italy.

Elizabeth, formerly Marketing Director of Champagne Bollinger and with almost two decades of experience tasting, buying and studying wine and Kasimir, with a background in start-ups and specifically emerging technology platforms met in 2001.

Their journey in to serious, pure, highest quality extra virgin olive oil began at Marco Viola’s door in Umbria.

They were travelling around the region hiking and exploring when they came across Viola olive oil in a restaurant in Montefiascone and both of them were blown away by the quality and intensity – it was unlike anything they had ever tasted before.

So they decided to take a detour and find out where Viola came from. Driving up to the unassuming frantoio in S.Eraclio di Foligno, they knocked on the door, and awoke someone from a post-prandial sleep.

They scrambled together all the Lire they had and bought two bottles of Viola’s oil. They then spent the next 15 years seeking olive oil of a similar quality but never found anything as good.

So when they moved to Tuscany with their young children, the mission began: to seek out the very best Extra Virgin Olive Oils in the country, produced by artisans who own their own trees and own mill and therefore completely control the quality.

On this voyage of discovery, they have learned a huge amount about the health benefits of olive oil, particularly if green olives are used and if it is consumed when it has recently been pressed.

Their mission is to change the way you buy your extra virgin olive oil by sending it directly from the Frantoio in Italy immediately after it has been pressed to offer as much pleasure and benefit as you get from a mid-summer tomato or a glass of mature fine wine.

As such, they offer the new season olive oil for just eight weeks of the year to give the maximum health benefits and enjoyment window.

Elizabeth has applied her knowledge of wine to olive oil, identifying different flavours from different cultivars that are indigenous to different regions of Italy and pairing them with different foods, so olive oil becomes a real ingredient rather than an after thought and this has begun somewhat of a revolution amongst dedicated foodies.

The health benefits of their oils are now being widely documented and their customer base includes leading nutritionists and doctors as well as some of the top chefs around the world and celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow.