About the Area
Piana degli Albanesi: history, culture, food
Our olive grove is located in Piana degli Albanesi, a green land in the very heart of Sicily, 40 kilometers from Palermo. It’s one of the most important vestiges of the Greek-Albanian colonies, a special town that still keeps up with its origins and historical path, blended with the traditions of the locals. That’s how this magical place was born, with a unique combination of history and tradition.
The olive grove
Our olive grove is settled in Contrada Kaggiotto, which gave our company its own name.
Once an ancient feud, this area offers a perfect habitat for our olive trees, which are able to take from the soil everything they need to grow up well and give back a unique product.
Olive cultivation has existed in Sicily for a long time, and extra-virgin olive oil production is well-known internationally as one of the best in the world.
There are several local cultivars in the Sicilian territory, and they all have thousands of years of history. We at Officine Kaggiotto want to collect this precious heritage in order to glorify its quality at the best.
This variety makes the extra virgin olive oil a unique product, that brings the Sicilian oil to the knowledge of the world with its body and unmistakable taste.
Organic cultivation and processing
What does “Organic cultivation” mean? Referring to olive trees, organic cultivation indicates all the processes that ensure a product with the minimum application of pesticides, harmful for the environment.
With deep consciousness, we have decided to create and offer an organic product. It’s our way to give back to the earth what nature gives us in the first place, also with the superior quality of this oil.
Working with an organic cultivation means to follow every step of the plant as it grows, and, at the same time, interfere as little as possible with it. For example, a good technique that preserves the richness of organic substances in the soil is to keep the weed species instead of eradicate them, and control their development with Cover Crops, for instance leguminous plants. Besides ensuring a rich amount of organic substances to the soil, this method increases biodiversity: it creates suitable conditions for hosting pollinating and antagonistic insects, with their ability to naturally contain and control the damages of parasites that hurt our cultivations.
About the crushing of the organic extra virgin oil
After the harvest, olives are collected and placed in plastic perforated containers, with adequate dimensions and easy to be cleaned. These are the best containers for this kind of stockage, because of the lack of air and oxygen that prevents oxidation and fermentation, which both could increase peroxydes and acidity and compromise the quality.
Once they’re carried to the oil mill and the residual leaves are taken out, olives are processed on the same day, again to preserve the best quality of the final product.
Our extra virgin olive oil follows a continuous cycle processing system. During all the steps of this procedure, the inner temperature is always kept under 27°C degrees. Some characteristics are indeed very sensible to high temperatures, for instance the phenolic fraction and the composition in volatile substances with sensory impact.
The most ancient harvesting method is by surfacing: the first-shown golden liquid, richer in flavor and more prestigious, is bottled manually with special tools. The heady scent of this extra virgin olive oil tickles the smell, and on the palate enhances the spicy and full-bodied taste of Sicilian olives.
