`From Denmark to Tuscany: A Family's Olive Oil Success Story - Olive Oil Times
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From Denmark to Tuscany: A Family's Olive Oil Success Story

By Paolo DeAndreis
Nov. 13, 2024 01:46 UTC

Gioanna and Henrik Brorson-Jorgensen enjoyed the olive har­vest in Uzzano, Tuscany, near Florence and Lucca.

“We are very pleased with the qual­ity of the olive oil. It tastes extra­or­di­nary,” they told Olive Oil Times.

We don’t do any­thing spe­cial to our trees. We cut the grass about three times a year and don’t spray any­thing. Each year’s out­come is entirely in the hands of nature.- Henrik Brorson-Jorgense, co-owner, Casale 3 Danesi

The Danish cou­ple and their daugh­ter founded Casale 3 Danesi in 2012, a multi-award-win­ning olive oil pro­ducer that also excelled in the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

With approx­i­mately 450 olive trees, the fam­ily cul­ti­vates four of Tuscany’s most typ­i­cal vari­eties: Frantoio, Moraiolo, Leccino and Pendolino. The trees grow on ter­races that sur­round the south­ern side of the family’s house.

profiles-the-best-olive-oils-production-europe-from-denmark-to-tuscany-a-familys-olive-oil-success-story-olive-oil-times

Henrik and Gioanna Brorson-Jorgensen are the co-founders of the small Danish family farm. (Photo: Casale 3 Danesi)

“While some of our olive trees are just five years old, most are over 70,” Henrik Jorgensen said. ​“Our farm dates back to 1790 and is sur­rounded by 1.7 hectares of land. It is a his­tor­i­cal build­ing. Because of that, even its white color can­not be changed.”

Once, the fam­ily farm­house was the home of the renowned Italian actor and come­dian Raffaele Pisu. ​“We didn’t know that until our vil­lage doc­tor asked us where we had set­tled and then revealed this to us,” Jorgensen said. Now, a photo of Pisu taken inside the house hangs inside.

See Also:Producer Profiles

Jorgensen said the fam­ily focuses on an early har­vest and blends olives of all matu­ri­ties into its award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil.

“When we start our early har­vest, many trees still bear fully green olives, whose oil blends beau­ti­fully with that from the oth­ers that are just turn­ing brown or black, as well as those halfway through ripen­ing,” Jorgensen said. ​“The result is an extra vir­gin olive oil we like with those strong fresh notes.”

profiles-the-best-olive-oils-production-europe-from-denmark-to-tuscany-a-familys-olive-oil-success-story-olive-oil-times

Casale 3 Danesi produces award-winning olive oil from 450 trees in Tuscany. (Photo: Casale 3 Danesi)

“Interestingly, many of our bot­tles go to the United States and Denmark, but many oth­ers stay in Italy, as we have sev­eral restau­rant clients,” he added. ​“They also buy our olive oil online. They use our prod­uct in the kitchen to enhance the fla­vors of dishes like risotto; they rec­og­nize the qual­ity.”

Like their neigh­bors, the fam­ily applies the same organic approach to all their crops, includ­ing vines and other fruits.

“When it all began, our neigh­bor intro­duced us to the fas­ci­nat­ing world of olive oil pro­duc­tion. He man­ages more than 2,000 trees and taught us the basics,” Jorgensen said.

“We don’t do any­thing spe­cial to our trees,” he added. ​“We cut the grass about three times a year and don’t spray any­thing. Each year’s out­come is entirely in the hands of nature.”

Over time, Jorgensen planted a small vine­yard near the olive orchard. ​“I can see the dif­fer­ence, as our organic approach feels like an uphill strug­gle with the vine­yard, but every­thing seems to fall into place with the olive trees,” he said.

“The weather and the fluc­tu­a­tions in olive pro­duc­tion dic­tated by nature, such as the vary­ing yields and oil con­tent in the olives, are our biggest chal­lenges,” Jorgensen remarked.

A nearby mill pro­vides the Danish fam­ily with every­thing they need to pro­duce high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

“Still, in har­vest sea­sons like this one, where heavy rain­fall made every­thing more chal­leng­ing, it’s not easy for us or the whole region,” Jorgensen said.

profiles-the-best-olive-oils-production-europe-from-denmark-to-tuscany-a-familys-olive-oil-success-story-olive-oil-times

Casale 3 Danesi sells extra virgin olive oil in Italy and exports to the United States and Denmark. (Photo: Casale 3 Danesi)

“At times, the mill didn’t fol­low the usual open­ing sched­ule because many peo­ple weren’t har­vest­ing, which forced us to fin­ish some har­vest days ear­lier than we wanted,” he added.

The olives from the small orchard are hand­picked with mod­ern elec­tric rakes and the tra­di­tional green nets that dot the Italian coun­try­side dur­ing har­vest sea­son.

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“When the rain comes, every­thing gets more com­pli­cated, of course,” Jorgensen said. ​“Plus, when you bring wet olives to the mill, you pay more for milling, as their weight varies.”

Rain impacted har­vest oper­a­tions for many Italian grow­ers, forc­ing the fam­ily into a stop-and-go har­vest­ing pat­tern. They spent full days wait­ing for the orchard to dry out.

“That was another chal­lenge, as some work­ers who help us dur­ing har­vest also have busy sched­ules else­where,” Jorgensen said. ​“Even with all those chal­lenges dur­ing har­vest, the result is an excep­tion­ally good olive oil.”

“I just noticed that we rank 41st among olive oil pro­duc­ers in Italy and 80th world­wide. We are very happy about that,” Jorgensen con­cluded, refer­ring to their place­ment in the Olive Oil Times World Rankings.

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