THE BEST EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL IN THE WORLD

The best extra virgin olive oil in the world? It’s Italian.

Italy is a heavily olive-growing nation, and most Italian oil comes from the south of the peninsula (85 percent of the total): Puglia, Calabria, Campania and Sicily.

Extra virgin olive oil, also known as EVO oil, is an edible oil extracted from the fruits of the olive tree and is a typical food of the Mediterranean area: a valuable and very ancient product with high economic value. We find extra virgin olive oil as the main food in the renowned Mediterranean diet, which, thanks to the amount of monounsaturated fatty acids it contains, is an important product for the well-being of the body.

THE BEST EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL IN THE WORLD

We are going to analyze the main Extra Virgin Olive Oils in the world and in Italy, namely:

• What is the best oil in the world
• Italy’s best extra virgin olive oil
• Campania Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Olio Campano DOP Irpinia Colline dell’Ufita
• Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Apulian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

What is the best oil in the world?

When it comes to oil, there is no one region of origin that is better than the other. There are virtuous techniques of managing the olive grove, harvesting, processing and storage that make for a quality product. Good oils, in short, are those that are done well. In Italy we have excellent oils and a great choice of olive varieties, a biodiversity that allows us to have more particular tastes.

The differences between extra virgin olive oils produced in Italy and those from other countries all lie in the presence of a particular chemical heritage, consisting of a hundred molecules, possessed by Italian but not foreign products that contribute to the formation of its taste and organoleptic characteristics.

It is, therefore, the territory that makes the difference, as shown by the concentration of oil production in specific areas of Italy: Puglia is the region from which most of the olives for oil production come (38 percent), followed by Calabria (22 percent), Sicily and Campania (9 percent) and Lazio (5 percent).

If on the level of olive oil production volumes Italy does not reach the top, it is, however, true that when talking about quality the discourse changes. No other country can boast the heritage of biodiversity, culture and certifications present in Italy.

The roots of this history lie in the Middle East. The oldest oil mills, dating back several millennia before Christ, have been found in Palestine. It then spread to Egypt, Crete, Attica and throughout the Mediterranean basin by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians. In fact, it was the Greeks who introduced it to Italy around 1000 B.C.E.,and the Etruscans who cultivated it and named its most precious fruit, “ELEIVA,” the Oil.

The Romans then spread the techniques of cultivation, pressing and preservation throughout the conquered countries. Over the centuries, olive groves thus became a feature of our country. As shown by the tools and archaeological finds unearthed over the years, oil has always been present in the customs and rituals of everyday life.

Today, for us, oil is above all a precious food, healthy, genuine, tasty and unfailing condiment on all our tables typical of Mediterranean cuisine. This is where our oil comes from, a delicious flavor of our present and the fruit of the experience of the past.

Italy’s best extra virgin olive oil

Italian extra virgin olive oil, especially thenew oil, retains all the ancient flavor born of remote wisdom and coming from a long history that preserves the secret of genuineness and deliciousness of a pure and fine extra virgin oil, because the best things are always the simplest and the most natural.

Each oil is linked to its own territory, and thus synthesizes each native cultivar (variety) of olives from which it is produced. There are hundreds of varieties of olives, which have different shapes and sizes and are characterized by a different ratio of kernel to pulp and thus a variable average oil content. Their productivity depends on a great many factors, climatic and cultural, that determine full production.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVO) refers to an oil obtained by pressing olives, the fruit of the Olea europea Leccino plant (better known as the olive tree).Extra virgin olive oil extraction processes can only take place mechanically, without the use of chemicals.

To defend against counterfeiting, Protected Designation of Origin(PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication(PGI) marks were established, which require the use of traditional techniques and restrictive and strict standards (compliance with which is guaranteed by an independent control body), with the intention of guaranteeing a superior quality product. With this guarantee, it is possible to choose real Italian extra virgin olive oil by tracing its true, certified, high quality origin from the first olive supply chain.

The quality of an olive oil depends on many factors: the cultivar, the condition of the olive tree and fruit at the time of harvest, the technology followed in production, harvesting and extraction, and storage conditions.

To achieve the highest quality and organoleptic specificity, state-of-the-art technologies are used, without forgetting local traditions and specificities.

For olive oil to be called virgin, it must be obtained from the fruit of the olive tree only by mechanical processes, under conditions, especially temperature, that do not cause alterations in the oil. An “extra virgin” olive oil must have an oleic acid content (degree of acidity) of less than 0.8 percent.

Campania Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olio Campano is made only from olives native to Campania. There are more than 60 varieties in this region, the most common ones being: Ravece and Ogliarola in the Avellino area; Racioppella, Ortolana, and Ortice, in the Benevento area; Caiazzana in the Caserta area; and Pisciottana and Rotondella, in the Salerno area. Olive cultivation covers about 73,000 hectares and ranks sixth in the production of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Italy.

Extra virgin olive oil from Campania, has a history of thousands of years, a symbol of the Mediterranean diet, obtained from olives harvested on trees 4 to 8 meters high, they represent and characterize the agricultural landscape of the entire territory.

There are four Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) areas in Campania:

• “Colline salernitane” PDO
• “Cilento” PDO
• “Peninsula Sorrentina” PDO
• “Irpinia Colline dell’Ufita” PDO

Contedoro, an oil mill since 1927, produces extra virgin olive oil with the protected designation of origin “Irpinia colline dell’ufita” PDO, follows the production specification that calls for at least 85 percent olives Ravece and 15% Ogliarola. The presence of these varieties in the Avellino area dates back to Roman times, present mainly in the Arianese area that is the heart of Irpinia olive production andextra virgin olive oil from Campania.

The monocultivar Ogliarola opens on the nose with fresh scents of green olive, highlighting notes of apple, artichoke and almond; the taste is initially sweet, exploding later to an intense bitterness and spiciness with a subtle hint of astringency.

The monocultivar Ravece, on the other hand, gives very intense notes on the nose with hints of freshly mowed grass, tomato leaf, apple and artichoke, in total harmony with the taste, centered on bitterness and spiciness, enriched by impressions of vegetables such as chicory. Appreciable in structure and for dynamism in the flavor path.

Olio Campano DOP Irpinia Colline dell’Ufita

Oil PDO Irpinia Colline dell’Ufita, is obtained from olives of varieties “Ravece” for not less than 60%, “Ogliarola”, “Marinese”, “Olivella”, “Ruveia”, “Vigna della Corte” alone or jointly in an amount not exceeding 40%; possibly, “Leccino” and “Frantoio” in an amount not exceeding 10%. The production area is that relating to the entire territory in the province of Avellino. The soils on which the olive groves vegetate are soils of calcareous, marly or clayey origin. Maximum production does not exceed 30Kg per plant. Harvesting is done at the beginning of veraison, between October and December each year except for Marinese and Leccino, which must be picked no later than November 10. Olives must be milled within 48 hours of harvesting.

Oil PDO Irpinia colline dell’Ufita has a color ranging from straw yellow to deep green. The taste and aroma are defined as follows:

• Descriptor * Median
• Defects 0
• Olive fruity 3 – 6
• Bitter 2 – 6
• Spicy 2 – 6
• Tomato 2 – 5

It is packaged in dark glass, ceramic and glazed earthenware bottles or tinplate containers with a capacity not exceeding 5 liters.

Production, from harvest to final product, takes place in the following municipalities in the province of Avellino: Ariano Irpino, Bonito, Carife, Casalbore, Castel Baronia, Castelfranci, Flumeri, Fontanarosa, Frigento, Gesualdo, Greci, Grottaminarda, Lapio, Luogosano, Melito Irpino, Mirabella Eclano, Montaguto, Montecalvo Irpino, Montefusco, Montemiletto, Paternopoli, Pietradefusi, San Nicola Baronia, San Sossio Baronia, Sant’Angelo all’Esca, Savignano Irpino, Scampitella, Sturno, Taurasi, Torella dei Lombardi, Torre le Nocelle, Trevico, Vallata, Vallesaccarda, Venticano, Villamaina, Villanova del Battista, Zungoli.

Oleificio Lo Conte uses a plant certified Organic by “Soil and Health.”

Organic Farming is a production method that aims:

• to maintain soil fertility over time by recycling plant and animal wastes in order to return essential nutrients to the earth.
• To cultivate without the use of chemicals and GMOs.
• To reduce and/or cancel all forms of pollution.
• to handle agricultural products with great attention to processing methods.

Precisely because of this, organic farming has a regulatory framework at the national and EU level and therefore a control body and certification that we have acquired.

Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olive-growing Tuscany is certainly a universe of peculiarities: territory, indigenous varieties and olive-growing culture give rise to a product to be discovered.

The olive tree in this region is distributed everywhere, from the coastal strip to the hilly areas, in a varied environment with micro-environmental differences that have also affected the behavior of olive growers over time.

These factors, together with the great biodiversity(more than 80 native olive varieties classified) contribute to the production of typical oils whose origin is recognizable, but characterized by some differences from each other.

Since 1998 Tuscan olive oil production has been protected by a Protected Geographical Indication, the Toscano IGP, whose regulations stipulate that all stages of the production process (olive production, pressing and packaging) must take place within the administrative territory of the Region of Tuscany. The varieties used are all native ones, including frantoio, leccino, moraiolo, maurino, leccio del corno, pendolino and correggiolo.

The oil is normally a more or less intense green color in the newly obtained oil, which tends to turn to yellow as time passes, while still retaining green highlights.

The sense of smell is reminiscent of green vegetable scents with round final sensations, a more or less evident bitter note and spicy sensation is always present on the palate.

Apulian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olive oil, defined by many as “the gold of Puglia,” is a food as ancient and precious as the land from which it is generated; the fruit of a generous climate, but also the result of great work and dedication on the part of those who, with love, cultivate and care for these authentic monuments of nature.

There are nearly ten million olive trees in Apulia; traditional olive groves on rocky and very poor soils, without irrigation, alternate with regal and irrigated olive groves. For greater uniformity of cultivation parameters, the entire region has been divided into nine zones: the parameters used relate to climatic conditions, the average number of plants per hectare, their variety and productivity. The lack of water in the areas of olive groves, is compensated for by the presence of basins, caves, caves, which absorb rainwater, which in turn goes to feed a complex underground water network.

From the north of Puglia to the far end of the heel of Italy, there are many extensions of olive groves among which, however, organic cultivation has been gaining ground in recent years.

Centuries-old olive trees are probably the best known and most widespread symbol of Apulia; they are the giants of the countryside. There are more than 60 million olive trees in the region, of which 15 million are over 100 years old and five million are considered monumental secular and subject to special protection. Secular olive trees, such as those in the countryside of Ostuni or in Rodi Garganico, are true living monuments, to be protected, preserved, and defended, because this also means preserving that balance of resources, flora, and fauna, typical of the area.

Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sicily produces excellent quality extra virgin olive oil. In fact, to be precise, it produces a wide range of extra virgin of the highest quality.
At this historical stage, the goal of Sicilian olive growers should not be to export their product to the rest of Italy and, least of all, abroad.

Sicilian olive growers, if they want to earn more money, must, first and foremost, target the domestic market, selling their product to Sicilian families.
And they must do this by enhancing farmers’ markets, local markets, encouraging Sicilian citizens to go, to buy extra virgin olive oil, even to farms and mills by recovering traditions.

Extra virgin olive oil is produced exclusively from Sicilian cultivars: Nocellara dell’Etna, Cerasuola, Tonda iblea, Moresca, Nerba and Biancolilla.