Other drinks

Olive oil
"Magnum" №4 (4) December 2005

The format was reassuringly familiar.

Tasters looked at the colour, inhaled aromas, sipped the liquid, rolled it in the mouth, sent it in the stomach and then started to discuss. Everything would be just as usual if not for the subject of the tasting. I was present at the seminar on olive oils of Sicily.

Why such a narrow topic? Why not introduce all Italian oil at once? Are the products of Sicily dramatically different from what they make, say, in the neighbouring Calabria? The moment of truth wasn’t far. The origin and productioin of olive oil in Italy is protected as carefully as the origin and production of wine. Wines have DOC zones, oils — DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta). Olive oil is produced all over the country except Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta. Although the number of oil DOP (35) is considerably less than wine DOC, it is more than enough to understand the Italian philosophy that olive oil is more than an agricultural product.

Sometimes it seems that it is valued even higher than wine. Last autumn a group of Russian journalists toured the wineries of Montalcino. Nearly every producer has — along with vineyards — a small olive grove there. But to persuade someone to give his olive oil for tasting was like mission impossible. The winemakers happily opened and gave as presents expensive Brunello di Montalcino wine, but as soon as the conversation turned to olive oil, people showed little enthusiasm — as if they were asked to share something very intimate… Out of twenty estates we managed to taste olive oil only in La Pescaia. And Altesino — with a truly royal gesture — had given a bottle of olio extravergine di oliva to each member of the group.

There is a smaller geographic division in some regions of olive oil production. In Sicily they distinguish 6 DOP zones. Inside one of them, DOP Monti Iblei, there are 8 subzones. This is similar to the situation in Bordeaux Left Bank, for example, where there is division of wine regions into Medoc and Haut-Medoc, and in the latter we find St. Estephe, Pauillac, Margaux and others.

The picture with olive trees is not straightforward either. To imagine that all oil of Italy is produced from one type of olives is like to think that all wines of the country are made from Sangiovese. About 400 varieties of olive trees are cultivated for production of olive oil — just as many as local grape varieties! The classic olives are Taggiasca in Liguria, Frantoio and Moraiolo in central regions, Carboncella in Lazio, Coratina in Puglia, Carolea in Calabria, Nocellara and Ogliarola in Sicily.

Yet, one fact about the oil is well-known to us. It is difficult to find a person in gastronomy who hasn’t heard of the best olive oil of Italy extra vergine. It takes the top triangle of the quality pyramid and belongs to a more generic category of olio d’oliva vergine. Below is a layer of olio d’oliva raffinato, and below it — olio d’oliva. There are six categories in total, and the first is divided into 4 more detailed sub-groups.

Olive oil tasting has a lot in common with tasting of wine. The main steps — evaluation of colour, aromas and flavours — remain unchanged, but each has own peculiarities. One tablespoon is enough for a tasting of oil. It is poured in small glasses and always warmed in a palm to free volatile components. For better effect the oil is whirled like wine. When it gets on the palate, it should cover as much surface as possible. Then the taster makes a small pause, slightly opens a mouth to get some air, spits (or swallows) and listens to sensations.

Aromas and flavours of olive oil are generally described with such adjectives as fruity, herbal, piquant, bitter and compared to the taste of artichokes, almonds, tomatoes… Olive oil can be light and heavy, supple and aggressive, well and poorly structured, with short and long finish.

The oil tasting normally starts with the youngest (most expressive) and finishes with the oldest (most balanced). Our seminar featured four olive oils of Sicily which roughly equaled four Bordeaux wines in a wine tasting.

The first one, fresh from the press, was very-very young, jovanissimo. The oil paradoxically combined soft aromas with sharp smell of grass and green tomatoes. Aggressive palate showed the youth, but the oil’s intensity and multidimensional character proved good structure and future potential.

The second sample seemed softer, but it got a hint of artichoke in the portrait. Its development went by crescendo — with light start and strong finish, as though all power went into the final notes of flavours. ’A fine note of bitterness’, approved the expert who ran the seminar.

With the third sample, one started to see the logical sequence of the tasting. The oils were served towards softening and deepening the flavours. Now the flavour profiles were more built on nuances, and the oil featured appealing notes of bacon, had a good length and got stronger in the finish.

The final sample still featured typical for Sicily flavours of green tomatoes and spread in soft waves on the palate, and then gave piquant, but elegant aftertaste where one could distinguish toasty notes. A fine olive oil, as the English would say.