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)

The Cultivated Olive Tree | Frantoi
The Olive Tree (olea europaea) has a place in history, infused in Mediterranean traditions. It has been harvested by humans for more than 8,000 years for its oil and its fruit.
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Frantoi - The Cultivated Olive Tree
June 4, 2020 In EVOO

The Cultivated Olive Tree

The Olive Tree (olea europaea) has a place in history, infused in Mediterranean traditions. It has been harvested by humans for more than 8,000 years for its oil and its fruit. The Olive tree thrives in warm sub tropical climates, benefits from moisture in the air and likes to have its feet in rocky, poor soil.

The first olives are said to have been harvested from low shrubs (or domesticated trees) in Syria and Asia Minor and the Assyrians then discovered around the year 6000BC that this fruit could be pressed to produce flavourful oil.

 

Typically Olive trees are propagated from cut roots or branches, which are buried in the ground or are grafted on to existing olive trees.

 

The major growing areas today still skirt the Mediterranean. Other sub tropical growing areas of note tend to track great wine regions, including USA (particularly California), New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Africa.

 

The Olive tree benefits from cultivation, requiring an investment of time, will, knowledge and above all passion. Harvesting by hand in the cold early winter weeks and pruning in the chilly early spring are not for the faint hearted. If well tended, it can reward consecutive generations: we have even witnessed trees in Puglia that are said to be 3,500 years old.


``The olive tree is surely the richest gift of heaven``

Thomas Jefferson, 1813