A hand holds a small cup of green oil at the table; beside it a spoon, a few olives and a glass carafe, with the mill's grindstones behind.

Food and wine

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra virgin olive oil is the blood of the Tuscan table. It is the substance that declares the identity of a cuisine, and Tuscany knows this so well that its oil has become a world benchmark. Pungent, bitter, grassy, with that note of artichoke and green almond that is the signature of its cultivars, Tuscan oil is one of those products that the territory has brought to perfection through millennia of patient work.

Rows of olive trees climb the hillside up to a stone farmhouse with cypresses; wooded hills stretch to the horizon behind it.

Where

Where it is practised in Tuscany

In Tuscany the geographies of oil are everywhere. Oil is made in all ten provinces, but with different vocations. Lucca and the Versilia have a tradition of delicate, sweet Lucchesia oil, from local cultivars (Frantoio, Leccino, Maurino). The Chianti — a territory that crosses Firenze, Siena and Arezzo — produces a robust, bitter oil, dominated by Frantoio and Moraiolo, perfect for the meat and pulse cooking of the farming tradition. The Siena area has Olio extravergine Terre di Siena DOP, from Frantoio, Leccino, Moraiolo and Correggiolo cultivars. The Grosseto Maremma produces a softer, coastal oil, with Pendolino and Itrana present. The Lunigiana (Massa-Carrara) has lesser but living traditions. Pisa, Pistoia, Prato have a widespread historic production, above all on a family scale and among small producers. The DOP Toscano IGP is the mark that certifies the oil of the whole regional territory.

A crate of green and black olives with their leaves, a carafe of oil, a wooden ladle, a blue tasting glass and folded fibre press mats.

How

The techniques of the craft

The techniques of the craft are many and define different worlds. The harvest is the first decisive gesture: olives picked at veraison (green turning to purple) give more bitter and more fragrant oils; ripe black olives give sweeter oils that keep less well. Picking by hand, with combs, guarantees higher quality than the mechanical shaker. The olive must reach the mill within 24 hours of picking, ideally sooner: every hour that passes sets off fermentations that damage the aroma. At the olive mill the process is codified: washing, crushing (with traditional stone wheels or modern hammers), malaxation (slow kneading of the paste), extraction (centrifuging or traditional pressing), separation (the oil parts from the vegetation water). Cold milling keeps the temperature below 27 degrees and preserves the polyphenols — the substances that give the oil its bitterness and its pepperiness and that are its treasures for health.

In a stone mill a man in an apron works at the grindstones; on the table in front, cruets of green-gold oil, a ladle and a folded press mat.

Now

The craft today

Doing it today is a beautiful and very hard craft. The Tuscan olive chain is fragmented into tens of thousands of small producers, many of whom make oil for their own use and for direct sale. The structured businesses live on export (Tuscan oil is sought in the United States, Germany, Japan and northern Europe) and on premium sales in Italy. The challenge is competition from cheap industrial oils and — increasingly — the effects of climate change: the olive fly thrives in warmer seasons, late spring frosts destroy harvests, torrential rain ruins the flowering. The finest businesses invest in organic farming, in resistant cultivars, and in strategies of adaptation.

The producers of this craft

Each one does it in their own way.

Podere Macolo Podere MacoloMontalbano, Pistoia La Fattoria di Afelba La Fattoria di AfelbaPoggio Paolone, Suvereto, Livorno La ForestaVentena, Montevarchi, Arezzo