In several of my previous blogs I mentioned that Greek settlers brought olives to the Ligurian shore around 600 BC. Time to talk about olives in more details. One of my Italian friends, from Liguria of course, swears that his olive oil is the world’s finest. He is not alone with his opinion. Just browse the web. But there are also many who vehemently disagree. So what is it? We shall find out during our first week of sailing.
Olive Harvest October 2022 in Chantrou, France
Italy has five major olive oil producing regions. Liguria is not one of them. First is Apulia (42%), followed by Calabria (12%), Sicily (12%), Tuscany (7%) and Lazio (7%). With less than 2% of total production, Liguria is on place 9 of this league table. Quantity is not quality though. Four regions actively compete for the title of best Italian olive oil: Apulia, Tuscany, Lake Garda and Liguria.
League Table of Olive Oil Production by Italian Region
Am not a qualified expert on olive oil but tasted the oil of all four regions. Apulia’s oil is balanced, not too acidic. Smooth is the word that comes to my mind. It is brightly yellow. Tuscany’s olive oil is far greener. Tuscan olives are harvested early before they are fully ripe to avoid frost bites. It is strong on minerals, acidic and sharp. Lots of people love it but for my tongue it is too acidic, sometimes even a little bitter. The oil from Lake Garda and Liguria are far milder, also greenish, rich in minerals and aromatic. Very nice on the palate with low acidity. Personally, these two are my favorites.
Distribution of Olive Plantations by Climate Factors
There are many variables that determine the flavor of olive oil. Climate, soil, time of harvest and variety of olives are the main factors. Olives like dry, cold winters and hot summers. They do very well on limestone but also grow on volcanic soil – considerably slower though. Olives can be harvested to February but most are collected much earlier. Mature olives are black or purple to red. Green olives indicate that they were harvested before being fully ripe. They thus are more aromatic but often more acidic too. Last but not least, the olive variety matters. Italy has 538 different varieties of olives – too many to describe here.
These Taggiasca Olives from Liguria look very similar to our Olives from Nice
We produce only 100 liters of oil at the northern end of the Cevennes. But over the twenty years we are doing this now, we learnt quite a bit. The summers in Chantrou are hot and months go by without rain – except a violent thunderstorm here and then. Our winters are cold and dry but the spring and fall are wet. It can rain for days. The soil in the Cevennes is mostly basaltic from the lava the Massif Central spew out 200 million years ago. We harvest our olives late October, early November for the same reason as the farmers in Tuscany. To avoid frost and hail. We lost two harvest to hail storms. Last but not least, the variety of our trees is eclectic. We started with some trees from Nice (apparently the same as the Ligurian), found some indigenous trees after a forest fire. The last batch of trees is from Spain which we bought in an auction. The indigenous trees and the trees from Nice produce the biggest yield. The trees from Spain do ok.
The fertile Olive growing Region from Imperia to Savona has soil of volcanic Origin
Our olive oil reminds us of the Ligurian oil. It is mild, rich in flavour and minerals, has little acidity and is liked by all our friends. With only 100 liters per year – our production fluctuates considerably since we are fully organic – we are too small for commercial production. Our bottles go as Christmas gifts to family and friends.
The Village of Borgomaro north of Imperial produces a very fine Olive Oil - the Hills could easily be in the Cevennes where we are
The similarities are interesting though. Liguria has dry and cold winters as we do. It is wet in spring and foggy in fall. The rising fog from the sea blankets the Ligurian hills with dew. Summers are dry and hot. The soil is mostly volcanic. The dominant olive variety called Taggiasca is the same as the variety from Nice. Many of our trees produce small, purple to red olives. Also, our yield per tree is similar to the yields in Liguria. Whilst a 100-years old olive tree in Apulia may yield 20 liters, a tree in Liguria is maxed out at two liters or 7 – 14 kg of olives. Last but not least, we also harvest our olives manually – like the Ligurians. Rotten or infected olives never make it into our baskets.
None of the above is science and at one point we should invite someone with far better knowledge of olives to have a look. We will bring a few bottles of our olive oil to our cruise this summer and then compare: Matching oil from the the Cevennes with oil from Liguria will be an interesting experiment.
A Piece of Bread is all you need to taste and compare Olive Oils