Rigorous methods are followed from the harvesting tecniques to the production process to guarantee that each oil we produce expresses the unique nature of the olives from which it is obtained.

 

Our olives are harvested by hand at the beginning of October when the drupes have reached under 5% ripening. By chosing to harvest early we reduce the quantity of oil we obtain from our olives, but we greatly increase the quality of our oils. We place our olives in pierced plastic crates and crush them within a maximum of 10 hours of their being harvested.

The olives are processed in a Pieralisi oil extraction system that uses a two-phase continuous cycle extraction method. In this process, our olives are gently washed and then crushed using a hammer mill. The olive paste is then passed into controlled tubs in which they are kneaded to activate the enzimes that fuse the tiny oil drops together. Kneading is carried out at low temperatures. This choice reduces the amount of oil extracted from the olive paste but preserves the aroma and taste of our oils. As soon as the kneaded paste becomes shiny, it is passed into a decanter in which the oil is separated from the humid residues. A final clarifying phase assures that any residual water is extracted from the oil.

The oil extraction system we have adopted has two advantages: (i) it allows our oils to maintain a high concentration of phenolic substances, increasing the presence of powerful antioxidants; (ii) it reduces the surface of the oilve paste exposed to oxygen in the air to a minimum and keeps the temperature of all the process low, enhacing the quality of the oils we obtain.

Each oil we produce is stored under nitrogen in stainless steel tanks to prevent oxidation. After a periodo f natural decantation our oils are ready to be bottled.