Olive oil is Italy's green gold, but with climate change, it's now being cultivated as far north as the UK. Will we soon be growing olives in Ireland, or is it a skill best left to the experts?
'COME TO ITALY for the weekend, to the Umbrian hilltown of Spoleto, famous for its summer music festival," the invitation read. "Be our guest at Frantoio del Poggiolo, a restored farmhouse with its own olive oil mill, and taste the new season's extra virgin olive straight from the press. There will also be an opportunity to enjoy some regional Italian cooking, in some of Spoleto's best restaurants."
Who could resist? Not me, which is how I found myself at Casa Monini, the headquarters of the family-owned Italian olive oil company which produces 30 million litres of olive oil a year, one-quarter of which is exported. About 1.5 million litres ends up on the shelves of Irish supermarkets.
We're not quite as thirsty as our European neighbours for the spremuta di olive, or juice of the olive. Italians glug their way through 12 litres of olive oil each per annum, while we in Ireland sip on about a half litre per person. Our appetite is growing, however, as we become more aware of the health properties of the green gold, as well as becoming more discerning about the type and quality we use. And we're not alone. Olive oil consumption has risen across the board in the past 10 years. In the US, there has been an increase in excess of 100 per cent in the past decade.
Much of the growth has been attributed to the increasing popularity and cachet associated with extra virgin oil, a premium product that must meet strict criteria governing the means by which it is processed, as well as certain chemical requirements, of which the most widely recognised is an acidity level of no greater than 0.8 per cent.
However, where there are rules, there are those who will try to break them, and the Italian olive oil industry has had to deal with a series of scandals in recent years, in which inferior oils were passed off as extra virgin. Some were discovered to be inferior soy and rapeseed oils coloured with industrial chlorophyll. These scams were an affront to many Italians, and the industry has fought hard to shake off the taint.
Monini prides itself on having been the first company in Italy, in the 1920s, to understand and exploit the potential of specialising in the production of extra virgin olive oil. It's a policy that is adhered to today by Zefferino Francesco Monini, grandson of the founder and the current president of the company, and his sister Maria Flora Monini, the company's PR director.
Monini is a maestro oleario - a sort of "nose" of the olive oil world, respected for his ability to assess the individual characteristics of different olives and the oils they will produce. He and his team of analysts taste each batch of new oil as it arrives. Much like "the man from Delmonte", if Zefferino says yes, the oil gets pumped into the company's giant underground storage tanks to await processing, blending and bottling. If he says no, the oil is redirected elsewhere.
This is olive oil production on a massive commercial scale, where the aim is to arrive at a series of blends that are consistent throughout the year, and retain the individual characteristics of each of the company's products, from the Monello Novello (an eagerly awaited early season "special", made with the first crop of the year), to the bestselling Monini Classico and the more pungent Gran Fruttato.
Monello Novello, an unfiltered extra virgin oil, most often made with Sicilian olives as they are the first to reach optimum ripeness, is released for sale in the first week of November. Monini sold 190,000 bottles of this light and characterful oil in Italy last year, and although it hasn't yet been made available in Ireland, William Rochford of BK Marketing, which distributes Monini in Ireland, is considering introducing it next year.
Back at Frantoio del Poggiolo, used for workshops with visiting chefs and for tutored oil-tasting sessions, our small group of Irish visitors got to see extra virgin olive oil production on a smaller scale, and the difference was striking.
Instead of underground tanks, vast steel vats, miles of pumps, and almost total automation, there was a small production line, high-tech, but compact, that takes in purple, velvety olives, grown on the rugged hillsides surrounding the mill and a little while later spits out a vibrant, pea-green liquid - the real "juice of the olive".
The oil was slightly cloudy, viscous and very luscious, a sort of turbo-charged essence of olive. A small toaster is kept at the mill, so the freshly pressed oil can be enjoyed on a slice of hot, crunchy bread, with salt on the side for those who miss it from the rustic local bread. It was something I have always wanted to try, and it didn't disappoint.
This oil, one of the final pressings of the 2007 season, was bottled to go on sale on the Monini website in Italy. The company produces several "special collection" lines, including unfiltered, organic and regional oils from Umbria, Tuscany, Puglia and Sicily, which are of sufficient quality to have earned DOP (Domination of Protected Origin) or IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) classification.
However, 2007 was not a good year for olive growers in Italy. The poor harvest was a result of too much heat and not enough rain. The olives were small and ripened earlier, meaning the harvest started two weeks earlier than usual. "Olive production throughout Italy is expected to be down by 15 per cent," the company's export manager said.
For us, this means higher prices to come. But the company won't always be reliant on the weather in this hemisphere for its supply. Monini has expanded its operations to Australia, where it is involved in a joint venture that will see its oil, made from olives harvested from Italian olive tree saplings that were shipped to New South Wales, on supermarket shelves in three to four years.
If global warming continues, will we see commercial olive groves in Ireland? It's not beyond the realms of possibility - Britain's first commercial olive grove was planted in Devon in 2006.
In the meantime, loosen the purse strings and spend a bit more on a good extra virgin olive oil. You'll reap the rewards every time you open the bottle.