Two Tuscan oil companies, L'Oliveto Foiano source of Castagneto Carducci in Livorno and Franci of Montenero d'Orcia in Castel del Piano in the province of Grosseto, were classified as the Best of the year. This was decreed by the panel of experts of the 2019 Flos Olei Guide, the most authoritative in the sector, presented during a gala evening at the Westin Excelsior in via Veneto in Rome.
Flos Olei, published by Marco Oreggia one of the greatest oil experts in Italy and Laura Marinelli, this year reviewed 500 excellent oil companies from 5 continents for a total of over 50 countries. Twenty of these were included in the category of excellence.
In addition to Fonte di Foiano which in Bolgheri has recovered some centuries-old olive trees on the 27-hectare estate by replanting new ones, and Franci, "an incomparable professionalism and a very rich basket of impeccable proposals", two sure realities of Made in Italy Oil for a long time, the Guide also awarded the Viola da Sant'Eraclio farm in the province of Foligno as Best extra virgin olive oil of the year, and the farm Vincenzo Marvulli of Matera, as the best extra virgin olive oil for the value for money, a recognition due to a company that has made quality its banner while maintaining a low cost, an act of respect by Giovanni, son of the company founder, towards the father who always recommended an almost familiar attention to the customer, keeping away from easy money. And so it was. And today Marvulli oil has a truly competitive cost compared to other quality oils.
Another company that entered the empyrean of the best 20 is the Company Titone organic farm, of Locogrande in the province of Trapani, to which it must be recognized, as a family of pharmacists for three generations, that they have always treated the organic oil they have been producing since time immemorial with the respect due to its purity and its typically Sicilian scents, as well as pharmacists to its properties. It won the award for Best Intense Fruity PDO/PGI Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Still to be reported among the Italian oils placed in the top twenty places the De Carlo farm of Bitritto in the province of Bari, Best extra virgin olive oil from organic farming Dop / Igp, an avant-garde plant that processes olives harvested in 132 hectares.
Moving on to this year's surprises, we find among the winners of this global competition a company from Costa Rica, Olivas Ruta del Sol which was awarded the prize for the best extra virgin olive oil from organic farming, a Chilean company, Agricola Pobena in the Cardenal Caro area, a 360-hectare company which for years has embarked on a path of quality and which today obtains its recognition, a Hungarian company, Oleum Maris a Greek, Lia Cultivators e four Spanish companies which is not surprising because Spain has long ago decided to establish itself on the ground of excellence and international markets. The entry of these countries into the Gotha of excellent oil as it emerges from Flos Olei is a very interesting fact because it demonstrates that the culture of oil once the exclusive prerogative of the countries of the Mediterranean area, Italy and Spain above all, has now widely spread in other countries not only in Europe but also outside Europe. Proof of this is that beyond the 20 winning companies placed at the top of excellence, oils from the Middle East, Asia, Japan and even Oceania also entered the competition this year.
“Through the tasting and selection of thousands of samples – observes Marco Oreggia the curators of Flos Olei bring the reader to the knowledge of the best production companies worldwide, guiding him in the choice oriented towards excellence. Above all in the discovery that the frontiers of quality have now been broken down and that excellent production results are obtained on all five continents. Indeed, among the olive-growing countries there are also unexpected economic giants such as China, Japan, Brazil, India”.
There are therefore 52 nations of the world present in the guide, each with its own introductory space that offers a historical-cultural panorama of production. A total of 779 oils are examined. Obviously, the heart of oil production is always the Mediterranean, but new realities are entering the panorama of quality production and some are growing strongly in the high-level olive market such as Croatia, France, Slovenia and Morocco.
Returning to the first prizes, it should be noted that the guide celebrated its tenth anniversary of activity, awarding the prizes on the basis of an overall assessment not linked to the year's production. In the sense that the curators have recognized a company score according to an attribution criterion that is not based so much on the evaluation of the single oil selected as on the overall consideration of the productive reality taking into account the value of the single company in the territory where it is born and produces, rewarding the commitment to a project that extends as much as possible to the entire supply chain, with the aim of recognizing the business risk of companies. In this way the consumer is offered a transparent evaluation tool of the different realities reported in their history, synonymous with guarantee.
When we talk about oils, we end up talking about prices. Extremely thorny topic when you have to pay attention to your wallet. But here the cultural contribution of the Guide works, which induces you to make reasoned purchases in the awareness that when you find yourself in front of a large-scale retail counter and they advertise an extra virgin olive oil
(sometimes slyly Olive oil without extra virgin olive oil) and we go from a price of 4 euros to 20 euros and more, a reasoning must also be done asking how it is possible, covering the considerable costs of quality (and therefore healthy) production to sell an oil, element of nature. at the price of an industrial drink composed of water and sugars.
