Tidbits from Tuscany - More Musings on Olives

After discovering that not all olive oil tastes good, I decided to do some research on the olives of Tuscany. Here's what I learned:

• Olive trees are evergreen (who would've thunk?). It usually takes about four years before they begin to bear fruit, but the trees can live for hundreds of years. They are incredibly resilient, sprouting back easily even if chopped to the ground, and fire-resistant.
• In most Mediterranean areas, olives are harvested in November, December and January, but in Tuscany the harvest can start as early as late September. This early harvest means that Tuscan olives are generally less ripe and therefore produce less oil than others. So Tuscan olive oil is also rarer than its olive oil peers.
• In Tuscany, olives are always picked by hand and the entire family is usually called on to pitch in during the harvest. (Sounds fun, doesn't it?) Olives are picked while they are still green and must be rushed to the press as soon as they come off the tree so they don't spoil.
• In their natural state, olives are very bitter, so they are soaked in brine before beingeaten or packaged for consumers. The potent little fruits are about 20 percent oil, so it takes about 200 of them to produce a liter of olive oil.

• In Tuscany, olives are pressed at a communal mill called a Frantoio. Growers traditionally bring their olives to the mill and stay to observe the official pressing. Granite wheels are used to crush the olives whole -- skin, pits and all -- making a paste which is further filtered and processed to extract all liquid from the fruit. This involves running the liquid through woven mats placed in a hydraulic press. A centrifuge separates the watery olive mass from the oil, and the oil is then stored in large jugs or steel tanks to "age" for a least a month. It then undergoes one more filtration process before it isfinally sold to consumers.

Check out the following sites for more fun facts, travel tips and recipe ideas related to the Tuscan olive harvest:

Matching Food and Wine with Fiona Beckett

WanderingItaly

Florence Villas

Food Network - Michael Chiarello

Photo courtesies: siciliasud.it, Wikimedia commons

Tidbits from Tuscany - Insight No. 3

Another thing I learned in Italy: Not all olive oil tastes good.

Yep, you heard me right. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say some of it is downright nasty. And keep in mind that this is coming from an admitted olive oil addict. At home in the states, I buy the stuff by the liter and add it to just about everything I eat -- salads, hummus, pasta, seafood, sauteed veggies, pizza, chicken, dipping sauce for bread and so on. At my last physical, I learned that my LDL (or "good") cholesterol was off the charts high, and my doctor told me that probably had much to do with my extreme penchant for olive oil.

So, you can imagine my surprise when, at the Cantine de Greve (referenced in a previous post), I dunked a fresh piece of bread into a dish of Tuscany's finest, popped the dripping morsel into my mouth...and nearly spat it out on the tasting table. The flavor was awful -- like it had been aged in a corroding lead pipe.

"Must've gotten the dud," I thought, and moved on to the next oil spout. Thinking perhaps the bitter taste in my mouth had something to do with the bread I'd used for dipping, this time I ran my finger through the shiny, golden liquid and licked it in hopeful anticipation. But once again, what I experienced was a tongue-curling, pungent flavor.

After a third unsuccessful tasting, I finally gave up. Maybe my tastebuds were off that day or maybe my palate just isn't sophisticated enough to appreciate authentic Italian olive oil. But either way, it brings me to Tuscan Tidbit No. 3 - All olive oils aren't created equal

Photo Courtesy of rd.com

Mantra of the month

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common -- this is my symphony.

- William Henry Channing

Tidbits from Tuscany - Insight No. 2

No trip to Italy would be complete without a good dose of wine tasting. And since our home base for the week was a cottage in the heart of Chianti, we challenged ourselves to taste a wide variety of Chianti's best. And I must say we performed pretty well against our goal.

By the end of the week, we had tried everything from a (delicious) carafe of the house wine at our local ristorante, to Il Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Barone Ricasoli's Chianti Classico.

On our last day, we even made a stop at Le Cantine di Greve, a be old wine cellar with cool stone walls, tile floors and a smorgasbord

of tasting options. We went hog wild hopping from one sample station to the next, sipping reds, whites and vin santo, then dipping tiny

cubes of bread in an array of olive oils.

Anyway, my point is that we consumed our fair share of Chianti during our time in Chianti. And I'm embarrassed to say I very nearly left the region without even knowing what it is that makes a Chianti Classico a Chianti Classico.

Fortunately, a charming Italian man saved me from my ignorance. Giuseppe Mirossi -- better known as Beppe -- is a friendly and accommodating gentleman who runs a car service in Tuscany and was kind enough to drive Granville and me from Castellina to the Pisa airport for our Saturday departure. I can truthfully say I learned just as much from Beppe during our 70-minute commute that day than I had in the previous six combined. I'll try to share all that I learned from him in future posts, but for now, it's back to the topic of Chianti.

As many people know, Beppe said, in order to qualify as Chianti Classico, a wine must be made from at least 80 percent Sangiovese grapes. But what most do not know is that the Sangiovese grape vine is indigenous to Chianti and therefore thrives in the region's soil, which is riddled with stones. These stones, said Beppe, leach minerals that provide nourishment to the grape vines through their roots. Plus, because the stones are very porous, they absorb moisture during the winter months and release it back into the soil during the hot summer months, making for a surprisingly stable environment for the roots all year round.

So, Beppe told us, Sangiovese grapes planted and grown in California, for example, will produce a wine very different from that made with Sangiovese grapes grown in Chianti. And only the latter will ever be considered Chianti Classico. The secret, he said, is in the soil.