EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

I n the search for the top quality, two years ago the farmhouse has installed a new plant for olive oil production: a SINOLEA oil-press. The olives are harvested by hand in the plants of Stroncoli, Montemaggiore, Rapale, Palazzuolo Vecchio, ancient places which lay on the high hills (450-600 mt) between Siena and Arezzo provinces. The cultivation is closely organic, without employing any chemical pesticide, herbicide or fertiliser (reg.CEE 2078/92). The olives are pressed at low temperature within 4-6 hours since their hand harvest. This allows the production of a top quality extravirgin oil which preserves all the flavours and fragrances of the Tuscan tradition. The olive harvest is anticipated and starts in the end of October, this is very important to obtain perfectly healthy olives and an oil rich of polyphenols and aromatic substances. The manual harvest and the press performed few hours after the harvest avoid the oxidation of the oil and guarantee its quality.

The SINOLEA press is a two phase-process. In the first phase, after the olives crush, the olive paste is put into contact with thousands of small steel blades which move very slowly toward and backward into the paste. The oil adheres to the surface of the steel blades more than the vegetation water (the water naturally contained into the olives), so when the blades move backwards, the oil falls down because of the gravity force. In this way there is no agitation or press of the oil.

The oil obtained from this phase is analogous to the one which surfaces naturally on the surface of the olive paste, after crushing. Its quality is absolutely the highest possible. It has a high polyphenols content (around 400-450) and a very low acidity (below 0.2). All vitamins are preserved.

This makes it ideal for health and enhance its durability, stability and resistance to cooking, time and heat. After the paste is exhausted from the first phase, the second phase starts. The second phase is the same which is used in the normal plants, i.e. a centrifugation, but there is a very important difference: the separation is between the solid paste and the liquid oil, i.e. a solid-liquid separation. This is called an ecological separation because it is possible to avoid the addition water in the process, reducing waste waters, moreover very few hydrosoluble vitamins are lost! This permits the attainment of an oil which is still a high quality one with polyphenols content around 170-250 and acidity below 0.2.