Harvesting generally starts from October until December depending on weather conditions. This phase is critical and delicate because if the olives are not picked at the right time, there is a risk of maceration. Harvesting by hand, known as “brucatura”, is the best method, although very expensive and slow, because it ensures the integrity of the olive. Our company has always harvested by hand or by combing, that is by running special automatic rakes along the branches and spontaneously dropping the ripe olives to obtain an oil without organoleptic defects and with very low acidity.

The olives are brought to the mill and placed in special containers commonly called “cassoni” or bins. Before the pressing stage, they are placed in a steel hopper and transported to a machine called a defoliator, where branches, leaves, stones and soil that may be present are removed. Subsequently, the olives are washed by a special machine that removes all impurities and deposited in a second steel hopper ready for the pressing stage.

The olives are automatically conveyed by a steel screw into a knife crusher whose function is to crush the olives and its stone, obtaining a homogeneous paste, the so-called “olive paste”. The resulting paste passes through a heat exchanger that cools or heats the paste before crushing, depending on the temperature of the raw material.

The mixture obtained is stirred gently and slowly for about 30-40 minutes, ensuring with certified devices that the temperature is always below 27°, in order to unify the oil molecules separated from the water. This process must be carried out perfectly, as correct kneading promotes uniformity of the oil droplets, which is indispensable for the subsequent processing phase.

The olive paste passes through a three-stage horizontal centrifuge, known as a “decanter”, which, through the rotating action of the drum, divides it into 3 products: virgin olive pomace, a by-product sent to the “sansificio” for processing into olive pomace oil and fuel; vegetation water, a by-product used as an agricultural fertiliser in our olive groves; and the valuable oil must.

The oil must obtained is separated from any water particles still present by means of a vertical centrifuge, the separator. Once this final processing stage is complete, the extra virgin oil is ready to be used.

The oil obtained is stored in steel tanks, with a nitrogen system, positioned in a temperature-controlled warehouse in order to preserve the organoleptic and chemical characteristics of our product.