Resources: Tuscan Olive Oil
The World’s Most Influential Olive Oil in the 2020 Vintage
As the technology of producing olive oil modernized in Italy and other countries in the late 20th century, with stainless-steel centrifuges replacing stacks of fiber mats, the taste of olive oil became cleaner, fresher, and more seductively aromatic. The producers, seeing that more of the good aroma came from greener olives, began to harvest between late October and early November, rather than waiting and picking black olives much later, which had been the norm. Olive oil began to be more popular and appreciated and to command a higher price around the world. The new methods and understanding made it so much easier to produce “extra virgin” oil that it become the dominant kind. The fresh modern oil in fact tasted more or less the way a tiny amount of the first-pressed oil of the season had always tasted, at least here and there. In Tuscany’s cool Chianti hills, the oil had perhaps always tended in that direction, and Tuscan oil became the most influential model. Its taste is the sum of the region’s olive culture, all the decisions made by a grower, the treatment at the mill, the climate in that particular spot, the year’s weather, and the native varieties, led by Frantoio, Leccino, Moraiolo, and Pendolino.By Edward Behr
Peak ripeness lasts just a short time, while the olives are still partly to nearly all green. From one day to the next, the oil changes. The best individual Tuscan producers — who carefully cultivate their own olives, pick by hand, and press within hours — offer oil with characteristic flavors, which include an element of green leaf but especially fruit (veering toward something that always strikes me as vanilla). The oil also has full body and the bitterness and pepperiness inherent in oil from an early harvest. The last two, distinctive marks of Tuscan oil, come from phenolic compounds, whose antioxidant qualities enable the oil to keep. Most important is oleocanthal, which is also responsible for the peppery, even burning sensation. The oil isn’t suitable for delicate, sweet lettuce or mayonnaise, but the raw oil is highly complementary poured on grilled meat and vegetables, many pasta dishes, strong cooked greens, and the savory dried beans that Tuscany is famous for. The fruit flavor is notably revealed in classic simple bruschetta, just raw oil on good toasted bread, though a little garlic doesn’t hurt. You can taste the superiority of the oil in cooking, too, but much more subtly.
The prestige of Tuscan olive oil has led to a more-is-more tendency, for instance in some luxury California oils, for which the olives are picked so very early that the oil is assaultingly bitter. With most olive oil, in the weeks and months after the harvest, the bitterness partly retreats, but with the extreme oils that never happens. I’m told that some Italian producers pick too early on purpose because they know their olives won’t be pressed right away, and the extra antioxidants help protect against deterioration. (There’s also a countervailing move toward flavorful, readily approachable oil. Certain varieties, such as Arbequina, are by nature less phenolic, and their planting is spreading. Yes, Arbequina is also one of the varieties that lends itself to planting as a hedge, so that everything from pruning to picking can be done by machine — I’m not in a position to say that trees are always superior, but I hope they are.)
It matters where you buy olive oil, because it deteriorates in the face of heat, air, and time, and sometimes oil is misrepresented. The Rare Wine Co. in California imports Tuscan olive oil and sells it directly. Mannie Berk, who heads the company, in non-covid times tastes each year at carefully chosen mills, where he selects the oils and talks with the producers about the vintage. Not every year is equally favorable and a warming climate doesn’t help, but the 2020 oils have all the qualities Tuscany is known for.
July and August were dry and hot, Berk summarizes, which made the olives less moist and less appealing to the olive fly, the main enemy of deliciousness. But the olives themselves were abundant, needing only time and the right conditions to develop. That happened when rainfall in September was followed by cool temperatures in October and November, with little rain during the harvest itself. Just what was needed.
I’ve tasted four of the Rare Wine oils. Pruneti Leccino, harvested October 15 to 22, is 100 percent Leccino, which all else being equal makes a sweeter oil, but in this rigorous execution the difference is small. Sàgona “Casellina” Blend, Vasca 5, was harvested October 26. At a Tuscan frantoio, the pressed oil is traditionally stored in large ceramic orci, or vasche. The oil from each location, each variety, each day is different, and at every property most of the oil ends up in one or more blends. Some Rare Wine bottlings, however, are from a particular orcio. This “Casellina” no. 5 combines Moraiolo with much smaller amounts of Frantoio and Leccino, from terraced oliveti in the Pratomagno hills. Frascole “Passatoio,” Orcio 5, harvested November 8 to 11, is 60 percent Frantoio, 20 percent Moraiolo, 10 percent Leccino, and 5 percent Pendolino; it comes from the grove Ventaio, named for the steady wind that blows there. Volpaia, harvested November 12 to 15, is by a small amount the greenest in color, something that doesn’t necessarily tell anything about the quality of an oil; it’s half Frantoio with Leccino, Pendolino, and 5 percent Correggiolo.
The oils are all extremely good and represent the Tuscan sensibility. They have the classic body and aroma along with bitterness and pepper, and for all their full aroma and lush texture, there’s something just slightly austere about the oils from this high, cool place, an indicator of the exceptional terroir. To differentiate them, I could aim at some high-flown adjectives, but they tend to make false promises. When I reach for a word to describe the classic taste of Tuscan oil like this, I fall back on “noble.” If I had to identify Tuscan oil in a blind tasting, that’s what I’d look for.
(Tuscan olive oils are among the most durable of all, but after any bottle of olive oil is opened and the contents are exposed to air, the oil slowly loses its good qualities. You don’t have to fanatically try to use it within two weeks, as I do, but use it every day rather than save it for something special. Don’t let the best flavors go by.) ●
From issue 108