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)

Storing your olive oil | Frantoi
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is relatively fragile and like fine wine, benefits from storage in a cool (ideally 12-16°C), dark place and importantly away from large temperature fluctuations.
464
post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-464,single-format-standard,theme-stockholm,stockholm-core-2.3.2,wc-braintree-body,woocommerce-no-js,select-child-theme-ver-1.1.1,select-theme-ver-9.3,,qode_menu_,qode-single-product-thumbs-below,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-6.11.0,vc_responsive
Frantoi - Storing your Oil
July 20, 2017 In EVOO

Storing your olive oil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is relatively fragile and like fine wine, benefits from storage in a cool (ideally 12-16°C), dark place and importantly away from large temperature fluctuations.

As pretty much everything in life, it is sensitive to oxidation and this is why we recommend using 50cl bottles so that your oil says as fresh as possible. We also recommend extremely dark glass bottles for the same reason. The worst thing you could do from a home cook’s perspective is buy large tins of Olive Oil and decant into clear glass bottles that you keep by the hob – this is the fastest way for your oil to deteriorate. I have recently discovered some bag-in-box alternatives if you need to buy in larger volumes – the bag closes in around the oil as it depletes, reducing the oxygen exchange issues. If you would like to know more about larger volumes, please just ask info@frantoi.org

 

When your receive your boxes of oil from Frantoi, we suggest you find a good home for them – upright storage is best – near to your wine rack, under the stairs, even in the bottom of a wardrobe. You may well have a few bottles on the go at once, if you have space, try not to keep them right next to the open flames of your cooker.