Olio Extravergine di Oliva Taggiasca Affiorato produced by the Dinoabbo farm is a sweet and delicate oil, one of the best Italian oils that comes from the olive groves around the ancient Imperia village of Lucinasco.
The taggiasca cultivar is recognised as one of the world's gastronomic excellences because it is one of the few olive varieties from which one can obtain both an excellent table olive and a superb extra virgin olive oil. In fact, the Taggiasca olive is one of the main ingredients in the local cuisine, used in typical Ligurian dishes as an olive (e.g. rabbit Ligurian style) but also as an oil, the favourite for making the recipe of pesto alla Genovese. Taggiasca olive oil has a delicate and fruity flavour that goes well with the unique aromaticity of basil and enhances its organoleptic characteristics without covering its taste.
What is olio affiorato and how it is produced
In dialect, affiorato oil is called 'Öiu de s'ciappa' and is still produced in the traditional way by first decanting the oil until it separates from the vegetation water and then it is kept in tanks carved from the underground rocks until it is bottled. The other processing stages are also still artisanal: harvesting takes place with an operation called 'beating', i.e. with the help of a wooden pole the branches are shaken to make the olives fall into the nets arranged between the trees (this is the only way, since the terracing, known as 'fasce', does not allow mechanisation); the olives are then pressed within 24 hours of harvesting - to maintain quality - using stone grinders; the pulp that is obtained is put inside the "fiscoli", made of fibre that serve as a filter and to extract the oil from the pulp thanks to the natural pressure exerted by the weight of the stacked fiscoli; this will eventually be the liquid that will be left to decant and which will become the oil that emerges.