Our Land
The Fattoria Poggio di Fiesole is nestled in the Florentine hills, roughly three kilometers north of the historic center of Fiesole. The farm is situated from 450 to 600 meters above sea level and is spread over 28 hectares, 15 of which are dedicated to olive groves. The estate, owned by the Scaravelli family for over a century, produces around 40 quintals of oil every year in accordance with the principles and rules of organic farming. This size is too large to be a strictly family production, but puts us on the smallest scale of commercial farming.
The organic method was formally introduced in the early 1970s by Alberto Scaravelli, in the continuity of the traditional, natural farming, which was then still in practice in our region. Alberto had been working since his young age side by side in the fields with the last peasants (traditional farmer), from whom he learned the ancestral wisdom of caring for our hills, while also being inspired by his passionate studies of what was just starting to emerges as the organic and permacultural thinking. In those years, when synthetic products started to be widely applied in Italy's farms, Alberto chose to never incorporate them into his practices. Alberto was among the first practitioners in Italy of what is today considered organic agriculture.
Nowadays, his sons, Enrico and Dario, follow in his footsteps. They continue to produce the highest quality of extra virgin olive oil while striving to preserve the environment, always respectful of what came before us and ever curious of what will come next. By making a direct bridge between the natural farming ways of our ancestors and the forward minded schools of organic agriculture, Alberto's vision of him granted us with a soil and a water source that have never been touched by synthetic products, and are therefore have always been organic.
The Trees
Fate and mother nature have been good to us, here at the farm. When our groves were planted centuries ago, they were sown in higher altitude fields than other farms in the area. In the early years, the increased altitude exposed our trees to harsh winters, but today it allows us to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, such as aridity or the spread of new parasites. Our hilltop position also provides us with a seemingly endless supply of clean air with constant ventilation, a favorable sun exposure, access to pure water through our own source, and rich soil, protected from cross contaminations by our location itself. These naturally occurring elements have created a unique microclimate in which our olive trees thrive.
We boast over 3,300 trees, mostly centenarians, of the typical Tuscan varieties -- Frantoio, Moraiolo, Pendolino, and Leccino. Like mother nature's kind contributions, each variety of tree also supports the health of the orchard in a unique way. Together, these 3,300 trees allow us to produce an authentic Tuscan olive oil with a unique flavor profile and exemplary nutritional properties.
While we love all of our trees equally, we are particularly fond of the 18th century planted by our predecessor Alberto Scaravelli. Always the visionary, in the 1990s Alberto foresaw the future affects of the changing climate. As a man unafraid to take risks, he chose to plant those new trees 550 - 600 meters above sea level. The new groves were drastically higher than those that had been ravaged by the exceptional and damaging frost of 1985. Many in the area thought he was foolhardy for planting so high, but today, those 700 trees are incredibly healthy and produce our best oil, enjoying today, through the changes in our climates, more or less the same conditions that their downhill peers used to know about thirty years ago.
Pruning & Field Maintenance
While we use state-of-the-art practices in our orciaia (olive oil cellar), in the fields we apply many of the traditional methods of the farmers. The techniques that we employ recall ancestral gestures, from hand pruning the olives trees into the shape of a polyconic vase, to the use of mulching, cover crops, and organic animal and green manures. We also minimize the use of tractors, and almost never till or work our soils.
Included in the personal attention that we give to the trees each year, is our care of what they call home and companions – our fields and the plants and wildlife that inhabit them. Like people, our trees are not only products of what we provide for them, they are also products of their direct environment. To that end, we endeavor to preserve the biodiversity of the fields which helps keep our trees happy.
In an effort to encourage the reciprocal relationship between our olive trees and the other flora and fauna in the groves, we now only mow the fields once each year. It is done in the harshest point of the summer when most low vegetation has dried up. This not only allows grasses and wildflowers more time to mingle with the wildlife, it also drastically reduces the amount of time a tractor spends impacting the land.
When Our Harvest Begins
The harvest period begins every year in early October and ends sometime in November. The first day of each harvest varies year by year, as the fruit must be in the optimal state of ripeness before we will let our harvesters begin.
Less mature olives contain less oil, but they are higher in the attributes that make an oil excellent. They are full of spiciness, antioxidants – the healthiest components of olive oil -, and have just the right level of bitterness. On the other hand, more oil can be extracted from riper olives and while they have a more buttery and fruity flavor, their antioxidant levels are lower, their flavor profile lacks spice and bite, and their shelf life is shorter.
We go for our olives when they are less ripe. Our oil yield is not as plentiful as it would be if were we to wait for the olives to plump up, and those still firmly attached little green jewels are harder to get off of the stem, but the oil we extract this way is worth the additional sweat in the fields and hours spent at the mill.
Although it is a time of intense labor, harvest is a joyous season at the farm. Our harvesters are, to this day, mostly retired gentlemen of the area, who, year after year, for some thirty seasons and counting, have returned to carry out the cheerful, although exhausting, ritual in our fields. In the plentiful years, they will spend a month in the fields every day from dawn to dusk, only the rain keeps them home. All of our harvesters request to be compensated in olive oil, which is absolutely legal in Italy, as it carries far more value to them than any other currency. As our oil has been on their families’ tables for thousands of meals, they are the best judges of each year’s vintage. And they are, undoubtedly, the best tellers of the hills’ stories.
Employing traditional and minimally invasive methods, our harvesters pick the olives by hand operated tools. By having the same harvesters pick from the same fields year after year, we know that the trees will be gently worked through with no damages affecting the production over time. The olives are then transported in ventilated and partially-filled boxes to avoid early crushing and fermentation, and pressed within eight hours of picking in order to guarantee that the fruits reach the frantoio (olive mill) in perfect health and without physical stress or major temperature changes.
At the Mill
While we take pride in our simple practices in the fields, once the olives leave the branch we embrace the most innovative methods of extraction and conservation. Our olives are processed in state-of-the-art mills and stored in our fully equipped, in-house orciaia.
At the mill, our olives are meticulously monitored throughout their delicate transformation into extra virgin olive oil. The entire extraction cycle takes place cold, to preserve the gustatory and organoleptic properties of the oil. The parameters of kneading the pulp are calibrated to obtain the best quality from every single batch of olives, at the expense of a larger quantity.
As soon as the last drop of oil exits the press, we transport it back to our orciaia where it's immediately filtered. The filtration extracts any remaining olive sediments, and helps maintain the shelf life and quality of the oil. The oil is stored in our orciaia in 500L – 1000L tanks until an order is placed. The tanks are stored away from sunlight exposure and are at a constant temperature of 18°C year long. In the tanks, the oil is always kept under a layer of argon (a food safe and odorless gas) to prevent oxidation.
Bottling at Our In-House Oil Cellar
At Poggio di Fiesole we bottle on demand to keep oil at its peak condition. All bottles are topped with argon, an inert gas suitable for food use, which preserves its freshness, aromatic profile, and distinctive organoleptic characteristics. As an additional safeguard, we bottle only in containers that help to prevent oxidation and avoid light exposure. We offer our oil in sleek and convenient stainless steel cans as well as in elegant dark green glass bottles. These extra steps guarantee that every bottle of oil, in every month of the year, will have the fragrance of the olio novo (new oil), as if it had just come out of the mill.
Flavor Profile
Our rigorous adherence to the principles of organic farming in the field and our meticulous care of the olive as it transitions from branch to bottle, allow us to deliver a velvety oil that offers a delicate explosion of flavors. The oil has an intense green color and is characterized by a clean and persistent fruitiness of green olive, with hints of red fruit, olive leaf, and chamomile. The bitterness level is medium-high, balancing on the softness of the body together with medium-high and persistent spiciness. The aftertaste is dominated by bitter almonds and artichokes. The analyses that we carry out each olive oil campaign at internationally recognized laboratories certify excellence of our oil. We are consistently graded with a very low level of fatty acids (less than 0.2%), peroxides well below average, and a high content of polyphenols, above 600 mg/kg, the antioxidants components of olives.
We produce exclusively organic extra virgin olive oil of the highest quality that has exceptional antioxidant properties. We only use olives picked at the optimal state of ripeness that have been grown on our land, in soil which has always been organic. Artisanal in size, the farm has been in the family for four generations, allowing us the experience necessary to adapt the ideal innovations that help us produce an extraordinary organic oil in an eco-sustainable environment.
