Rare Italian Olive Variety Leads to World Class Oil

Summary

Giancarlo Biagioli’s Coroncina olive oil won a Gold Award at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, mark­ing the vari­ety’s debut on the world stage. Biagioli’s ded­i­ca­tion to pre­serv­ing the unique qual­i­ties of the Coroncina cul­ti­var through tra­di­tional farm­ing prac­tices and care­ful pro­cess­ing has gar­nered inter­na­tional atten­tion and acclaim.

Historically cul­ti­vated in a few square kilo­me­ters in cen­tral-south­ern Italy, the Coroncina olive vari­ety was thrust onto the world stage at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

A Coroncina mono­va­ri­etal extra vir­gin olive oil milled from 65 ancient olive trees span­ning a sin­gle hectare earned a Gold Awardin its World Competition debut.

“It was our first time,” said Giancarlo Biagioli, an expert taster and owner of Biagioli Farm. ​“While we already knew that our extra vir­gin olive oil was good, the Gold Award in New York con­firmed that we are doing what it takes to bring Coroncina to the world stage.”

“It’s a very rare cul­ti­var, one of the most unknown even in Italy, and yet it has a strength of its own,” he added. ​“Our oil con­vinced the judges also because of these fea­tures: a clear aroma, with notes of arti­choke and fresh grass, and that unique­ness you can’t find else­where.”

After years of train­ing and prac­tice as a pro­fes­sional taster, Biagioli enrolled in the early 2000s in the national reg­is­ter of olive oil tast­ing experts main­tained by the Ministry of Agriculture.

“I wanted to under­stand this cul­ti­var truly. For years, it was har­vested too late, at the expense of its aro­matic inten­sity,” Biagioli said. ​“So I decided to antic­i­pate the har­vest to mid-October, right at the begin­ning of verai­son, to respect its soul.” 

Nestled in the heart of the Marche region at almost 500 meters above sea level, Biagioli Farm’s new olive grove sits between Caldarola and Serrapetrona.

“Here, the Coroncina tree reigns supreme,” Biagioli said. ​“It grows on cal­care­ous soil, full of gravel and stones, which makes any agri­cul­tural oper­a­tion dif­fi­cult. But it is pre­cisely in that harsh ter­roir that the plant finds its fullest expres­sion.”

The fas­ci­nat­ing his­tory of the Coroncina cul­ti­var com­ple­ments its award-win­ning fla­vors.

“I found a munic­i­pal ordi­nance from 1453 that required those who owned small plots of land to plant two-thirds with Coroncina olive trees and one-third with fig trees,” Biagioli recalled. ​“And they did that for a rea­son. They believed the figs would attract the olive fruit fly to pro­tect the olives.”

“They show that even in ancient times, peo­ple here were already look­ing for qual­ity olives,” Biagioli said.

Coroncina farm­ers count on the thick skin of the dru­pes, which makes it far more dif­fi­cult for the olive fruit fly to col­o­nize an orchard.

According to Biagioli, the bal­ance between nature and tra­di­tion, mod­ern tech­nique and his­tor­i­cal mem­ory, defines the qual­ity of his award-win­ning olive oil.

“I don’t use any chem­i­cal treat­ments. Not even those allowed in organic farm­ing. I had the soil ana­lyzed before start­ing to ensure no pes­ti­cide residues. It’s land that has never seen any­thing for­eign to its nat­ural cycle,” he explained.

The orchard itself required a long wait and a bit of luck. ​“It took me 15 years to find the right plot. Those who own these olive trees hold on to them tightly. It’s like wait­ing for a front-row spot at the beach resort. When the owner finally decided to sell, she told me: ​‘I’m not giv­ing away my father’s olive grove to just any­one.’”

This is why Biagioli hopes to expand the pro­duc­tion area in the com­ing years, though he is not entirely opti­mistic about it.

“I’d love to acquire another olive grove, but you have to win the own­ers’ trust,” he said. ​“It’s not a mat­ter of money. There’s an almost reli­gious attach­ment to these trees. They’re not sold to just any­one. I was lucky.”

According to Biagioli, the ori­gins of Coroncina date back many cen­turies.

“I found ref­er­ences con­nect­ing this area to the Basilica of San Clemente a Casauria, in Abruzzo,” Biagioli said. ​“Around the year 1000, Cistercian monks are believed to have brought some cul­ti­vars here to pro­duce oil for sacra­ments and light­ing.” 

“Coroncina may be a deriva­tion of Toccolana, an Abruzzese vari­ety with which it shares genetic and sen­sory traits,” he added. ​“It’s only a hypoth­e­sis, but a fas­ci­nat­ing one.”

Once the grove became avail­able, Biagioli decided to intro­duce a long series of improve­ments to enhance the rare cul­ti­var’s nat­ural qual­i­ties.

“I chose the mill: a new one, equipped with the lat­est-gen­er­a­tion Mori-Tem sys­tem, work­ing in the absence of oxy­gen,” he recalled.

The farm orga­nized the har­vest so that all the olives would be col­lected and trans­ported to the mill within three to four hours.

“I fil­tered the oil after about 20 days, stor­ing it in stain­less steel tanks under nitro­gen,” Biagioli said. ​“Then I bot­tled every­thing in small 250 mil­li­liters bot­tles, ideal for the restau­rant indus­try, so the oil always stays fresh.” 

The Coroncina mono­va­ri­etal is now win­ning new sup­port­ers locally due to the grow­ing inter­est of sev­eral chefs. Having been fea­tured on the world stage, olive oil is also attract­ing inter­na­tional cus­tomers.

“I shipped a few bot­tles to Norway. I was impressed by the atten­tion Northern Europeans give to olive oil’s qual­ity and health aspects. There, it’s seen not just as an ingre­di­ent but as a health ally,” Biagioli noted.

Coroncina seems to lose its soul out­side this tiny region, Biagioli believes.

“Taken from here and grown else­where, its oil becomes some­thing else. Terroir is every­thing. Moving it means can­cel­ing what makes it unique,” he said.

According to Biagioli, pro­duc­ing olive oil means telling a story.

“There’s still so much to uncover in the quest for excel­lence. Extra vir­gin olive oil can bring out some­thing deep, even pri­mor­dial. I feel ancient echoes when I taste my oil,” he con­cluded.