On Friday we started harvesting olives to make our Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We have 12,000 olive trees on the Il Poggione estate. The olives are hand-picked and brought immediately to the estate’s oil press where they are pressed within 6 hours of harvest.
Just as with wine production, making olive oil has several steps we repeat vintage after vintage. First, the leaves are removed and the olives pass on a belt to where they are washed with water.
Then, they are cut into thin slices by sharp blades. The slices are so thin that they transform the slices into an olive paste.
Afterward, the paste is stirred to separate the liquid (oil and water) from the solid olive residue. Then the liquid goes through a centrifuge that separates the water from the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The olive oil is then filtered before it is finally bottled.
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