When people talk about extra virgin olive oil, they almost always end up talking about “intensity”, “fruitiness”, “pepperiness”. We will try to understand how these typical sensations come about. For the most part they come from the olive varieties, which in mill dialect are called cultivars. Our oil contains four of them, all Tuscan, and each one has a distinct, easily recognisable character.
Frantoio
This is the variety that gave Tuscan olive oil its reputation, and not by chance. It’s a vigorous, productive tree that adapts well to different soils and different seasons. In the oil it brings green fruitiness, bitterness and a peppery kick at the back of the throat, that slight scratch many people associate with “real” olive oil. It’s also rich in polyphenols, which is why a Frantoio oil holds up well over the months without tiring.
Moraiolo
A small olive that ripens early and yields less than the others. Anyone who works with it knows: it gives little, but that little has a lot to say. It’s the cultivar that pushes toward the bolder side, with notes of artichoke and green tomato, marked bitterness and a colour that leans toward deep green. It also copes well with drought, which these days is no small thing.
Pendolino
The name comes from its branches, which hang downward, and you notice it right away when you see it in the grove. As a single-variety oil it is softer and less aggressive, with hints of almond. But in an olive grove it has another role too: it is an excellent pollinator, and the surrounding trees benefit from it. In the blend it smooths the rough edges and brings balance.
Leccino
Sweet and delicate, with a gentler fruitiness and little bitterness or pepperiness. It’s a hardy tree, resistant to cold, and in Tuscany it was widely replanted after the frosts of 1985 for exactly that reason. In the blend it rounds things out, so that the strength of Frantoio and Moraiolo doesn’t hit the palate like a sharp blow.
Why four and not just one
A single-variety oil can be beautiful, but it speaks with only one voice. Bringing four cultivars together means building a complete oil: the structure of Frantoio, the character of Moraiolo, the sweetness of Leccino, the roundness of Pendolino. Each harvest shifts the proportions a little, because every year ripens differently, and it’s work that is decided in the grove and then at the mill, not at a desk.
From the grove to the bottle
Our trees face south-west, on soil that suits olive growing well. Plenty of sun, good drainage, and olives that ripen slowly.
Harvesting is done entirely by hand. It isn’t a romantic choice, it’s a practical one: by hand you can select, discard damaged olives or those that fell too long ago, and avoid bruising the fruit. A bruised olive starts to ferment almost immediately, and you can taste it later in the oil, so sorting matters more than people think.
The olives are pressed by the end of the same day. The mill is modern, three-phase, with cold extraction: the paste is never heated, so aromas and polyphenols are preserved. The result is an oil with a distinct aromatic intensity and very low acidity, which is the mark of healthy olives processed well and quickly.
A tip for tasting it
Pour a little into a glass, warm it for a few seconds in your hands, smell it, then take a small sip and wait. The bitterness comes first, the pepperiness after, at the back of the throat. If before that tingle you catch freshly cut grass, artichoke or almond, you’ve already managed to pick out the four cultivars that make it up.
It comes in a 750 ml bottle. For the technical details, the data sheet is available here: Wine tech sheet
