Extra-virgin
olive oil

Those who explore the hills around Monsummano Terme will see the lush olive groves growing there, looking out over the Valdinievole and the Fucecchio Marshes.

The tradition of olive trees and extra-virgin olive oil dates back first to the Etruscans and then to the Romans. Starting in Greece and from the part of southern Italy known as Magna Grecia, olive trees moved up the peninsula to the limit of its climatic zone, the Apennines.

Beyond this barrier, the climate is too cold for this Mediterranean plant. As a result, northern Tuscany is the borderland for its cultivation.

The trees are smaller and their trunks have almost always been damaged by the cold. The unmistakable and unrivaled characteristics of the oil produced in northern Tuscany is due perhaps to their small size that enables manual harvesting or to the different climatic conditions. Here, the plants produce 10 times less than in areas with milder winters. Nonetheless, the oil from upper Tuscany has been unanimously recognized as of superior quality, less acidic, fruitier, more flavorful, more balanced, and more stable than most southern oils.

The Montalbano Toscano PGI Oil is produced in an area that includes the provinces of Pistoia, Prato and Florence. The controlled denomination of origin of “Toscano” with the additional geographical indication of “Montalbano” is reserved for extra-virgin olive oil made from the following varieties of olive trees that make up 100% of the olive groves: Frantoio, Moraiolo, Leccino, Pendolino, Rossellino, and Piangente.

Its characteristics are a color ranging from green to a golden yellow; a fruity aroma with hints of almond, artichoke, and other ripe fruit, verde foglia; a fruity flavor with a slight bite, and a maximum acidity of 0.5 grams per 100.

“You can’t imagine the countryside…without the silvery foliage of these olive trees – centuries old, yes, but not gigantic. Pruned like a tree, sometimes enclosed in dry walls, they are not meant to overproduce … just to produce better. The oil tradition here is even older than the vineyard’s and refers to the Etruscan colonization and to the fact that … a higher value was attributed to oil than to wine. Extra-virgin olive oil had a triple function …: energy, food, and pharmacology. (…) And here, along with the cultivation techniques was the extraction technology that developed, by perfecting the Roman mills and with the prompt arrival of millstones and then filtering machines with a very modern specimen provided specifically through Leonard’s intelligence. “

Cambi - P. Carsetti, Vinci a tavola, in Vinci di Leonardo, 2004

TASTINGS

Azienda Agricola Bardelli Grazia – Via la rave, 448  Monsummano Terme

Azienda Agricola Il podere di Nonna Olga – Via del vaticano, 1363 Monsummano Terme

Azienda Agricola Casale Vaticano – Via di Melazzano, 226 Monsummano Terme

Azienda Agricola Le Vedute – Via Bronzoli, 153 Monsummano Terme

Azienda Agricola Poggio Solaio – Casato Brogi Monsummano Terme

Azienda Schickert Christian – Via Montevettoini- Cantagrillo, 3001 Monsummano Terme

Azienda Agricola Dal contadino – Via Vallone, 1044/a Monsummano Terme

Frantoio parlanti – Via Francesca Nord, 850/g Monsummano Terme

Frantoio Cardillo Giuseppe – Via Pozzarello, 1169/b Monsummano Terme