Olive oil tasting - fresh cut grass or tomato leaves?

Sunday, May 14 2017 – Learning to appreciate variations in green

After our travels to Assisi and the Eremo delle Carceri, we returned to our agriturismo and changed and dressed for our 5:30 PM olive oil tasting event at the restaurant.

Punctual Americans that we are, we showed up on time, only to find out that a Canadian bike tour group was also scheduled to join, but they got back late from touring and wanted to take showers before coming to the tasting.  Would we mind waiting for 15 minutes or so to start?  Well, as we were offered glasses of Prosecco, what could it hurt to wait?

We're here; where's the party?

Some Prosecco brings on the smiles

Forty minutes later, Max, our waiter and tasting host, said he thought we might just proceed with the 2 of us.  The Terre di Poreta is an important olive oil producer in the region – they harvest more than 15,000 trees each year.  They have been making mono cultivar olive oil in recent years, with increasing success in the market.  We tried three different varieties of oil made from 3 separate olives:  Leccino, Moraiolo, and Frantoio.  The Leccino varietal is the most delicate, and Max said it it sensitive to climate, so grows on lower elevation where it won’t be damaged by frost, etc.  The oil is very light yellow green in color, and smells like fresh cut grass.  It’s used for salads and other light applications in cooking.  The Moraiolo is a little more hearty and has an aroma of tomato leaves and artichoke petals.  It is used for pastas, such as with Amitriciana sauce.  The Frantoio is the most common varietal that grows in almost all regions of Italy.  It is very hearty, and disease resistant because it was genetically modified some years ago, if I understood correctly.  This varietal looks, smells and tastes live OLIVES – no question – and is very good.  About this time, the cyclist group joined us – they were very friendly and we stuck around for another 15 or 20 minutes, to listen to more information about making oil.

Tasting 3 mono cultivars of oil:  Leccino, Frantoio and Moraiolo

Max describes Frantoio as the most "olive" flavor - very intense

Wonder what's making Mike smile?

Color, fragrance and viscosity are all qualities that determine the taste and flavor

The Canadian biking group joins the tasting

We decided to sit outside for a while, as the evening was still early and the light was very pretty.  Some rain clouds were gathering, and the sun kept peeking out from underneath the clouds.  At one point, it poured rain for about 10 minutes – and then stopped as abruptly as it started.  A rainbow followed almost immediately, as the sun returned from under the clouds.