Liquid gold

Liquid gold
Magazine: August 2007

Italy is the second producer of olive oil worldwide after Spain, with about 14% of the world heritage of olive trees

The olive oil accompanies the history of man, for whom it has been food, economical resource, and fuel, drugs, cosmetics and holy as regards its regenerating, purifying and protective features, and thanks to all that it has been used by different religions to celebrate rites. Egyptians spread oil over the dead, as they could meet the next world’s gods, and also Christians accompany their dead to the next world by means of the Extreme Unction. And only thanks to oil, the ancients could lighten darkness. It is one of the few nourishments that has not changed for thousands of years, and it is the only that is extracted from a fruit (the drupe) and not from a seed. In Italy olive trees go back to the Tertiary, but its cultivation started between the 6th and 4th century B.C., at the beginning in centre of Italy, and it has become so important that an olive tree branch was printed on the Roman currency. Indeed, just the Romans spread the cultivation of olive tree in all the Mediterranean area, the world place of origin of the culture and production of olive oil.

The routes of extra-virgin olive oil
Someone could be surprised in discovering that even in Piedmont the cultivation of olive oil has historic roots and that in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a native type, called bianchera, has survived to the terrible frost that destroyed almost all trees in 1929. The Emilia Romagna hides a small production of valuable oil on the Romagna hills. But nobody is astonished observing the hills covered with silver in Liguria and Tuscany, regions where the olive threes have been cultivated since immemorial age. The Umbria has the primacy in number of Oil Cities. But the place of origin of oil is the Lazio, which has availed itself of the know-how of agronomists and of the entrepreneurial spirit of the merchants from antique Rome. Running down to Southern Italy, the Campagna produces very good quality oils. And also the Calabria focuses on oil with over 33% of market share, thanks to the products with soft vegetal taste similar to the Lucanian oil. In Sardinia there are some cultivars of Spanish origin. They originated in the 17th century when the Governor and Viceroy of Spain ordered to re-graft the olive trees. Today the cultivation of olive tress has been fully relaunched, thanks to oils with delicate fruit and fl ower characteristics.