Az. Agr. Balduccio di Andriano März

There is hardly anyone in Italy who deals with high-quality olive oil who does not know Swiss-born Andreas März. For decades, he has been fighting for quality, even against multinational corporations that sell inferior olive oil with Italian-sounding brand names as "extra virgin". However, Don Quixote became David, who won against Goliath, because after years of litigation, which would probably have cost him his livelihood had he lost, Italy's olive oil production experienced a huge jolt. His "Olive Oil Dossier" became a standard work and his magazine "Merum", which has been dedicated to olive oil and wine from Italy for a quarter of a century, finally received the attention it always deserved.

The agronomist emigrated to Tuscany over 40 years ago. In the enchanting village of Lamporecchio, on the hills of Montalbano, a foothill of the Apennines between Lucca and Florence, he found his fulfilment. Today, he and his family cultivate around 6,000 olive trees on 15 hectares of land and produce around 10,000 Liters of olive oil. If he were to grow wine, he could easily produce ten times as much and certainly earn much more. "If you want to earn money with olive oil, you should never cultivate olive trees" is one of his pithy sayings, with which he is unfortunately right. Because producing good olive oil is an enormous amount of work.

At Balduccio, olives are only harvested "from the tree". Nets are placed under the trees to catch the freshly picked olives. Olives that have already fallen off are not processed, as they are usually already infested with insects and rancid. They are immediately transported to the modern oil mill in small crates. If you now have the romantic idea of the large millstones that so often catch your eye on Italian estates, forget it. It may be a story worth seeing, but you can't really produce high-quality oil with them because the olive pulp oxidises far too quickly. Modern oil presses, such as Balduccio's, are not romanticised, but rather are ultra-clean stainless steel plants in which the olives are first separated from the leaves and then washed and dried. The inert gas argon is superimposed to prevent the supply of oxygen. Shielding prevents too much exposure to light and keeps the entire system at a constant temperature below 24 degrees Celsius. It all sounds highly technical - and it is. In addition, the entire processing line is dismantled daily and every particle is cleaned to prevent any possible contamination and oxidation.

The success proves the März family right. The fresh organic olive oil, which is now carefully filtered and bottled, comes out light green and wonderfully fragrant. It is certainly one of the best olive oils in Italy. Numerous awards prove this. And - that it is regularly sold out in May or June.

Such oils are small works of art and cost money accordingly. While this is understood in southern countries, it is often not understood in this country, as the discounter goods (usually bought together from several countries in the Mediterranean region, blended and prettied up) are sold at prices far below those at which a genuine "extra virgin" can be produced with the olive varieties common in Tuscany, such as Moraiolo, Frantoio, Leccino or Pendolino. It's no different to comparing tetrapack wine with wine from the vintner or mass meat production with organic animal husbandry. You can smell and taste the difference immediately.

The fresh extra virgin from Balduccio has just arrived. Be quick, because we only received 120 bottles with the first delivery. By the way: If you find it too spicy or too scratchy when tasted on its own, this is exactly what characterises its quality. Because as soon as it is drizzled over salad or hot pasta, any spiciness disappears and the wonderful green flavours unfold. You can also cook, fry and even deep-fry at temperatures of up to 170° - all the stories that this is not good are nonsense. After all, every Italian nonna has been doing this her whole life. SUPERIORE.DE