“When I started working in the countryside, I knew very little with respect to olive cultivation, oil production and especially with respect to what an extra virgin olive oil should be.
To gain awareness of these things, I attended several courses that made me understand how I have to work if I want to get a high-quality product.
Today I am an official oil taster according to the COI method and I strive to produce an oil that reflects what I have learned “
THE OLIVES
About 900 olive trees grow on our land. There are many cultivars (varieties of olive trees), but the ones you will find here on I Moricci are the classic Tuscan Leccino, Moariolo, Frantoio and Prendolino.
Most of the trees are very old being shown in the maps of the Leopold archive of 1822. In 2000 we planted another one hectare of trees (roughly 250).
Most of the trees are very old being already present in the maps of the Leopold archive of 1822. One hectare, about 250 trees, we planted in 2000. From the beginning, we decided to follow EC regulations regarding organic certification.
Ours was one of the first farms to make this choice in the area.
HARVESTING
The olive harvest begins in early October and rarely goes beyond November 15. This, in fact, is the best time to obtain a product with excellent organoleptic characteristics and to avoid some problems that in organic farming are very difficult to control since they cannot make use of pesticides.
The olives are dropped from the tree on large nets (we never are olives picked already on the ground!), for the lower part is worked by hand, for the upper part is used an electric comb that allows to avoid the dangerous use of ladders.
The olives are then places in small perforated boxes in which air can circulate which avoids the start of unwanted fermentation.
Every evening the olives are brought to the mill and pressed. This quick turnaround helps create an extra virgin olive oil with very low acidity.
THE MILL
The mill in Vicopisano with which we collaborate is not very close but we decided to take our olives there not only for the professionalism of the operators but also for a number of other reasons. In fact, they are one of the few mills where the processing of organic olives is done every day, it is possible to press relatively small quantities (depending on the year, the day’s harvest does not go over 200 kg), they use modern machines that ensure that the temperature remains below 27°C ( cold extraction) and the cleaning is thorough.
After blowing off the leaves, the olives are washed and then crushed, broken into small pieces.
This is followed by grinding in stainless steel, closed tanks, which takes an average of 25 minutes.
From this vat, the resulting paste passes into a centrifuge that separates the solid and liquid parts. The emulsion of oil and vegetable water undergoes a subsequent centrifugation so as to obtain the oil.
The whole process takes about an hour.
PRESERVATION
The oil is brought to the farm and after filtration is bottled.
Experience has taught us that filtration is very important to lengthen the life of an oil and maintain its qualities over time.
It is good practice to store the oil in clean containers, away from strong odors, away from light (for this reason dark glass bottles or cans are preferred) and at a temperature between 9°C and 25°C