TRADITION TODAY characteristic organoleptic properties of young green olives : spiciness and bitterness .
This is how we obtain our characteristically complex and sophisticated oil with its high green fruitiness and aromatic notes of apple , grass , leaf and almond . It is velvety in the mouth with a medium balanced spiciness and bitterness .
Our oil truly stands out from the crowd and is clearly differentiated from the Island ’ s fashion of sweet oils ; sweet , in olive oil tasting terms , meaning a lack of bitterness and spiciness , two traits that give an oil a strong personality .
“ Traditional methods are more respectful .”
Spanish olive oil has many ambassadors . Award-winning chefs create 9-course menus from this ‘ liquid gold ’ to demonstrate how to incorporate the traditional flavour of Mediterranean food into modern gourmet cuisine . Selecting the right oil is an art . Tastings , similar to wine tastings , are now being used to introduce customers to their finer points . There are some 700 varieties of olive worldwide and the oils extracted from them are divided into the following categories : light , medium and intensely fruited . Europe is a major player here , as it produces 80 percent and consumes 75 percent of all the olive oil produced worldwide . Spain is the largest producer of olive oil , followed by Italy and Greece . In Mallorca , olive farmers are attaching increasing importance to the organic label on their products . DELUXE interviewed gourmet expert Deborah Piña-Zitrone about the exclusive extra virgin olive oil produced by the organic finca Son Moragues in Valldemossa .
True extra virgin olive oil is a rarity , only about 20 percent of the world ’ s production is of this standard . How do you achieve this quality ? When olives are picked they become very susceptible to the oxidation process , losing their vitamins and gaining acidity , which is why they are selected and processed as quickly as possible ; and this is where having a modern , state-of-the-art olive press in the middle of our ancient olive groves comes in useful . We pick by hand , selecting the healthiest olives and protecting them from direct sunlight as much as possible and processing the fruit immediately . These are cold pressed in the centrifuge at a temperature below 27 º C , and the oil is kept away from direct contact with the air to prevent oxidation and to maintain the lowest possible acidity . During the growth and ripening stages of the fruit ( June / July to October ) we treat out trees with an organic Kaolin clay treatment , which protects the fruit from the sun ’ s direct , abrasive rays and more importantly protects it from the olive fruit fly ( Bactrocera Oleae ) which every year devastates organic olive production across the Mediterranean . In this way , with the pampering and attention to detail that only artisan techniques allow combined with the best of modern organic agriculture , we produce olives of extremely high quality which guarantee oil of exceptional nutritional and organoleptic qualities .
Mrs Piña-Zitrone , you have been offering olive oil tastings at Son Moragues since the end of last year . How do you explain the great difference in taste between the oil of Son Moragues and others from the region ? For me , what I think is truly special about Son Moragues is the fact that it produces modern olive oil while maintaining old fashioned methods of cultivation .
The agricultural work at Son Moragues is very hard . It is impossible to mechanize the agricultural process on a mountain estate like Son Moragues . But despite being harder , slower and less efficient , these traditional methods are much more respectful of the trees and the fertility of the soil , and so you get much better flavoured , healthier fruit .
At Son Moragues we have also begun to harvest our olives earlier in the year than the old-fashioned way in the mountains . This means that the olives produce less oil , but it is healthier and tastier . We also have our own oil press on the estate , right next to the olive groves . So the olives are truly in their optimum state and full of their healthy compounds , which they transmit to the oil along with the
Son Moragues is an organic finca , how do you go about cultivating , harvesting and producing the oil ? At Son Moragues we follow the strictest European Legislation for Organic Agriculture in all our processes . We respect our environment and the fertility of our soil , optimizing our resources and staying clear of all kinds of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides . Olive cultivation requires the trees to be pruned during the winter months , and at Son Moragues different areas of the estate ’ s olive groves are pruned every year to keep an ongoing cycle which
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