LOTS AND VERY GOOD OLIVE OIL 2022
Trequanda celebrates the new oil and Fattoria del Colle brings to the table the first olive pressing in 2022. Tuscany grows in quantity and quality compared to 2021
Olives-harvest-2022-Fattoria-del-Colle
The festa dell’Olio Novo is back in Trequanda this year together with applause for the newly elected Senator Silvio Franceschelli, Mayor of Montalcino, who told us “the inhabitants of small towns have the right to have the same opportunities as those who live in the city”. A political program that we agree with. The third reason for celebration a visit from my friend and great oil expert Antonietta Mazzeo. She dined with us together with the surprise guest Massimo Rossi, AIS delegate from Arezzo and 40 exuberant aspiring American writers.
Fattoria del Colle and the medieval village of Trequanda are at the centre of one of the best Italian production districts for extra virgin olive oil.
TRACEABILITY OF THE OIL
The Olio Novo festa is an opportunity to learn something about the healthiest fruit on earth. In the Tracoil Conference I listened to Professor Stefano Loppi and Doctor Martina Grattacaso explain how the area of origin leaves a trace in the oil that resembles a fingerprint. The parameters examined are three: the composition of the soil, the chemical analysis of the oil and the isotope ratios. The Valdichiana markers are calcium, nickel and strontium. As for fatty acids, the comparison between our extra virgin olive oil and Portuguese oil shows in the latter, the presence of many fatty acids in small quantities while the foreign sample highlights a smaller number of acids with higher concentrations. Overall, the study, which will soon be completed with the analysis of isotopes, shows how it is possible to trace the origin of the Valdichiana extra virgin olive oil, safeguarding it from those who pass off a foreign oil as Tuscan.