Tenuta La Novella is closed from Dec, 21st to Jan, 6th Buone Feste a Tutti!

The Olive Mill

The Olive Grove

The 20 hectares of olives spread across Tenuta la Novella are notable for the predominance of Moraiolo olive (70%), a capricious variety that yields an oil of rare complexity. To it, we add Frantoio (20%), Leccino (5%) and Pendolino (5%). Organic exploitation is supported by Tenuta la Novella’s exceptional geography, where altitude protects trees from the indominable ‘olive fly,’ which is particularly damaging to the quality of oils from the plain.

Discover our Olive Oil

The Mill

Olio.png__PID:a4166852-3336-437b-bd2c-45614ab00051

The manufacture of Italian green gold has a tradition spanning hundreds of years. It was distinguished by the transformation of olives into oil using specific mills for this purpose. According to Tuscan tradition, each estate had its own mill and obtained its own production, harvested by the estate’s farmers. Unfortunately, over the decades, due to various factors such as the rural exodus in the 1960s, the numerous traditional mills gave way to a large majority of industrial mills. In 1996, François Schneider, wishing to preserve the soul of the estate and to perpetuate the centenary tradition of olive oil production, decided, among other things, to invest in a mill equipped with the latest technology. As a result, today, many of our neighbors come to produce their own oil at our place, “dans les règles de l’art” in the state of the art. 

The olives are harvested by hand at the time of optimal ripening. Depending on the year, this is around the first half of November. Once harvested, olives undergo processing within 24 hours. The leaves have been removed and rinsed with water before we move on to the crushing stage. This consists of transforming whole olives into paste. The paste is heated to a temperature of about 26 degrees Centigrade, the optimum temperature for separating the solid part (paste) and the liquid part (oil + water), while preserving the oil’s characteristics (i.e., the higher the temperature, the more the aromas evaporate and the lower the quality). The two parts, solid and liquid, are separated by centrifugal force in the decanter. We then move on to a new centrifugal separation between oil and water to recover the purest possible oil. The last step before bottling consists of filtering the oil and placing it in stainless steel tanks under inert gas to prevent it from oxidizing.