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The oil tasting technique changes from one tester to another: the rules listed
below can help you to identify the differences between one olive oil and another...
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Currently around 27,000 hectares
are planted in olive trees, with about 18,000 in the Province of
Perugia and about 9,000 in the province of Terni. The amount of
olives produced varies, depending on the year, from 30,000 to 60,000
tons, all of which is transformed into oil.
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Oil is one of the very few
converted food products obtained by using mechanical methods alone,
whereas all the others are the result of chemical, thermal processes
and so on (grapes – wine, wheat – bread, sugar beets – sugar,
etc.).
Olive oil has always been
extracted by grinding the olives, extracting the liquid part and
subsequently separating the oil from the vegetation water. This
method has not changed over the centuries and is still valid today.
Only in recent decades have technological innovations been introduced
and specialists in the field are still involved in a heated debate as
to what functions best in the various productive cycles.
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In addition
to the vine – Orvieto’s genius loci
– and to wheat, oil was the third product which was a characteristic
element in the Greek and Roman diet. In Etruscan times too (especially
in the 7th-6th centuries BC) the olive tree
was held in particular consideration thanks to the excellent possibilities
olive oil offered for trade. The Roman port of Pagliano (Palianum),
not far from Orvieto, bears witness to an intensive trade between this
territory and Rome (1st-4th cent. AD).
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