`Marche Hosts 12th Exhibition of Italian Monovarietals - Olive Oil Times
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Marche Hosts 12th Exhibition of Italian Monovarietals

By Ylenia Granitto
Jun. 12, 2015 11:11 UTC

The 12th Italian National Exhibition of Monovarietal Extra Virgin Olive Oils will be held on June 20 and 21 in San Benedetto del Tronto, Marche. It is orga­nized by ASSAM (Marche Agri-Food Sector Service Agency) and the Marche Region, and it is one of the many events aligned with this year’s Milan Expo.

The aim of the exhi­bi­tion is to enhance the value of Italian olive grow­ing bio­di­ver­sity and help char­ac­ter­ize mono­va­ri­etal EVOOs obtained from the huge selec­tion of Italian native cul­ti­vars.

Monovarietal olive oils are those obtained using one olive vari­ety, or cul­ti­var. Various chem­i­cal and organolep­tic fea­tures related to genetic her­itage cor­re­spond to soil and cli­mate con­di­tions of areas that the dif­fer­ent cul­ti­vars have been pop­u­lat­ing for cen­turies.

Barbara Alfei is pres­i­dent of the sci­en­tific com­mit­tee for the event and panel leader of the group of experts that selected sam­ples from sev­eral regions of Italy. ​“Monovarietal EVOOs allow to high­light typ­i­cal geno­type prop­er­ties,” Alfei said.
See Also:The Best Monovarietal Olive Oils for 2015
​“Italian olive grow­ing pat­ri­mony is extremely var­i­ous,” Alfei added. It offers the oppor­tu­nity to put on the mar­ket prod­ucts char­ac­ter­ized by dif­fer­ent genetic and ter­ri­to­r­ial iden­ti­ties, enriched with his­tory, cul­ture and tra­di­tions. This can be per­ceived and appre­ci­ated both by con­sumers and by the restau­rant indus­try, for a more aware use in every­day life and a more care­ful research of the best com­bi­na­tions in gas­tron­omy.”

Each cul­ti­var, from the north to south of Italy, has its unique fea­tures — aroma, fla­vor, fatty acids and phe­no­lic com­po­si­tion — and once you under­stand its poten­tial, you can appre­ci­ate a sin­gle vari­ety, trust­ing in its pecu­liar­i­ties, or pre­fer a blend of dif­fer­ent vari­eties. ​“Research on prod­uct iden­tity is a goal that pro­duc­ers are now pur­su­ing to dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves in an extremely evolv­ing and com­pet­i­tive mar­ket. They have to sat­isfy the needs of a dynamic, ever-chang­ing scenery,” Alfei con­cluded.

Twelve edi­tions of the exhi­bi­tion have so far con­tributed to the Database of Italian Monovarietal Olive Oils (avail­able online for now only in Italian), which cur­rently con­sists of over 2,400 sin­gle-vari­etal olive oils and offers a descrip­tion of the main fatty acids, polyphe­nols and organolep­tic pro­file for every oil.

Barbara Alfei

The 2015 panel ana­lyzed 186 oil sam­ples of 62 dif­fer­ent vari­eties from 15 Italian regions, and from Greece — a guest with its Koroneiki vari­ety. Despite this edi­tion receiv­ing 40 per­cent fewer oils than last year, a higher per­cent­age has been allowed by the panel.

Apart from the last pecu­liar har­vest that affected the qual­ity of many olive oils, past edi­tions saw a grad­ual increase in polyphe­no­lic con­tent for many vari­eties, thanks to a grow­ing com­mit­ment of pro­duc­ers in achiev­ing higher qual­ity. In other words, over the years, sin­gle-vari­etal EVOOs sub­mit­ted to the expo­si­tion reached increas­ingly greater inten­si­ties of bit­ter­ness and pun­gency, as well as a bet­ter nutri­tional char­ac­ter­is­tics.

The meet­ing will pro­vide a valu­able oppor­tu­nity for many tasters to deepen their under­stand­ing of the sen­sory char­ac­ter­is­tics of mono­va­ri­etal EVOOs and for pro­duc­ers to show off prod­ucts that, despite a dif­fi­cult year, reached high stan­dards for qual­ity.

For more infor­ma­tion, see the event web­site.

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