Central Italian Producers Build on Their Success at World Olive Oil Competition

Part of our con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

The 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition has brought big results for large and smaller pro­duc­ers in Central Italy who saw their extra vir­gin olive oils rec­og­nized as world-class prod­ucts by the judg­ing panel.

“We are a small com­pany oper­at­ing in a beau­ti­ful val­ley, tra­di­tion­ally focused on the pro­duc­tion of Verdicchio wine,” Francesco Sabbatini Rossetti, owner of L’Olinda Olive Farm and pro­ducer of the 2020 Gold Award-win­ning Monocultivar Raggi, told Olive Oil Times. ​“Winning the Gold Award for one of our best extra vir­gin olive oils sends us really good vibes.”

L’Olinda Olive Farm is an agri­cul­tural com­pany com­pletely devoted to olive oil pro­duc­tion on its more-than 130,000 acres in the Marche region of Central Italy.

“We pro­duce sev­eral monocul­ti­var extra vir­gin olive oils; olive oils com­ing from a sin­gle vari­ety of olive tree. Traditionally we har­vest the Raggia olives in the first half of October,” Rossetti said. ​“We had to over­come a series of adverse con­di­tions in the last cou­ple of years. Our trees are still recov­er­ing from the Burian win­ter storm that hit us two years ago.”

“It brought very cold tem­per­a­tures in mid-March, such an unusual event for our lands,” he added. ​“Many plants have suf­fered and the Raggia trees suf­fered even more, being more exposed to those unex­pected and icy winds.”

One of the secrets of Monocultivar Raggia’s qual­ity, Rossetti said, lies with the pri­vate oil mill the farm can count on. Their Mori mill only processes L’Olinda Olive Farm olives. In the mill area, the extra vir­gin olive oil is stored in ded­i­cated rooms under con­trolled con­di­tions.

“We only bot­tle our oil when we ship our orders,” Rossetti said.

Not far from the Marche region, in Umbria, sev­eral grow­ers also saw their names and olive oils appear on the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils — the NYIOOC’s guide to the award win­ners.

“We are very hon­ored and happy to receive the Gold Award for our Rastrello extra vir­gin olive oil,” Christiane Wassmann, owner of the Rastrello Boutique Hotel and farm, close to the town of Panicale, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It comes on top of the ded­i­ca­tion and the hard work that our team put on our groves through­out the whole year.”

“Last sea­son was not an easy sea­son, with more than half of our sprouts lost because of the heat­wave. We depend on rain­fall, and we did not have enough, we even had to replant 40 young trees that did not make it through the drought,” Wassmann added. ​“We also had some evi­dence of the olive fruit fly spread­ing, but the early har­vest­ing allowed us to pro­tect the qual­ity of our extra vir­gin olive oil.”

To the judg­ing panel, Rastrello’s tast­ing sen­sa­tions include herbs, green pep­per, chicory, spice and arugula.

To Wassmann, the secret of Rastrello’s suc­cess lies in the ​“respect for our trees, from the organic fer­til­iza­tion to prun­ing and har­vest­ing. We take care of our olives, we are very care­ful about how we han­dle them and we have a strong rela­tion­ship with our local oil mill.”

A Gold Award was also awarded for the third time to the Frescobaldi Laudemio extra vir­gin olive oil, which is pro­duced in Tuscany and imported to the United States by the Manicaretti Italian Food Importers, who sub­mit­ted it to the com­pe­ti­tion.

“I am mostly pleased that the Frescobaldi fam­ily is main­tain­ing this noble posi­tion after 30 years,” the founder of the com­pany, Rolando Beramendi, said after learn­ing of the award. ​“This oil is pro­duced under the strictest self-imposed rules and con­sid­er­a­tions, and even with all the uncer­tain­ties Mother Nature always has in store for us, it con­tin­ues to be a win­ner.”

Beramendi’s com­pany began import­ing Laudemio extra vir­gin olive oil decades ago.

“Little by lit­tle, with the help of the entire Frescobaldi fam­ily and their uncon­di­tional sup­port, we have grown the brand and main­tained a posi­tion of utmost qual­ity in our dis­tri­b­u­tion,” Beramendi said. ​“I think after three con­sec­u­tive years of Gold, you could almost call it a clas­sic, as we do.”