Obsessed with Olive Oil Documentary - Chapter 3

OBSESSED WITH OLIVE OIL DOCUMENTARY - CHAPTER 3: MODERN LOVE (OF OLIVE OIL)
Technology is key in modern olive oil production but to make a quality olive oil you need a team effort. That effort starts in the grove. When working the groves, you have to be part weather forecaster, part environmentalist, part chemist, and part economist. Then you probably need to throw in a little bookkeeping and a healthy dose of endurance.
This job takes many hours a day because making a good oil means making a fresh product - a fresh product from the mill in a timely fashion is key and the work of the miller is very important. Since the machines have to be calibrated perfectly, the skill of the miller counts for a lot.
It’s really important to bring the olives as fast as possible to the mill. When they get here, we crush the olives and at this point we introduce a world of problems for the oil. It takes in air and oxidizes. Every phase of milling warms it up and here is where the defects caused by heat begin.
There is contact between the external part of the olive, even if it is cleaned, with the oil inside the olive, which starts the fermentation process. So, we are mixing internal and external water. All the problems with oil start right away. To fight the effects of time, heat, oxygen, and contaminants the miller uses sealed, finely tuned, modern machines to extract the oil. They often work all day and night and even sleep at the mill.
Every olive cultivar has different aromatic notes and flavour profiles. So, to be able to extract this oil while maintaining all its characteristics is a very complicated process.
Olive oil tasters can be called in to help the miller maintain the characteristics of an olive cultivar or achieve a desired sensory profile. They can also be part of an official panel that classifies oils.
Tasting, when talking about extra virgin olive oil is very important because extra virgin olive oil is the only food in the world where the tasting method done via a panel test is used to determine its commercial classification. So tasting is very important compared to other products.
There are three main positive qualities of an oil - fruitiness, pungency, and bitterness. The balance of these can completely change the aroma and flavour profile of an oil, so it really is up to the miller and the producer to determine which quality they want to highlight and what that balance should be. The certified tasting panel will confirm that balance as well as look for sensory defects that the miller may have missed, or in some cases may not want to admit are there.
Olives that are not properly worked will give origin to an oil with defects. If heated too much we would lose the bitterness, lose the pepperiness, lose the aromas, and so on. So, it's not just an extraction, but a process. So, it’s a lot more than to simply extract the oil from the olive.
In a perfect world with a chain of people that are equally obsessed, skilled, and knowledgeable, you can get an oil that's exceptional and that reflects the flavours of the land and tells a story about the people that made it. It all may have started in the Mediterranean, but olive oil is now produced in South America, Australia, the U.S., Africa, and even China and Japan, and it's starting to be consumed all over the world.
On every step of the production level, everything has to be done right and perfectly. It's amazing the number of people - how all the people rely on each other. It's a team effort from the inception all the way to the end, and even to the sale, like when a retailer or producer has to sell their olive oil. It's no different than a band relying on a booking agent or press, or people trying to bring it out to market and translating that passion onto the people. So, it's pretty crazy!
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I'm Fil Bucchino, a former musician turned olive oil expert - an accredited professional olive oil taster (often compared to an advanced or master sommelier in the wine industry), an international contest judge, and a premium olive oil producer.
I collaborate with chefs and restaurants on olive-centric dinners and events and consult with various institutions and chambers of commerce. Yearly, I travel back to Tuscany to produce, test and airship a limited amount of premium extra virgin olive oil. I do this with Abandoned Grove, where we rescue and rejuvenate groves back to their former glory.
Enjoy!
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Perhaps you have a subtitle error at 7:02 "meat and cheese production". It seems they are saying "milk" and not "meat"?