New Initiatives Promote Olive Oil Culture in Northern Italy

New olive oil-related projects have of late emerged in northern Italy, an area with mounting production and a growing number of olive oil professionals and enthusiasts. In the heart of Turin, Piedmont’s capital, Eva Collini threw open its doors L’Evo di Eva, the region’s first oleoteca – an Italian neologism for an olive oil shop.

Its name is a play on words between the widely used acronym for extra virgin olive oil and her first name. Before becoming an olive professional and debut the oleoteca , Collini worked in the automotive sector for 15 years.

He immediately told reporters, ‘Work with olive oil, since you love it so much,’ and so I decided to give it a try.” She began studying the olive oil market. Discovered that in Italy, there were only a few olive oil shops in the central and southern regions of the country. After attending a series of tasting courses, she found the right spot downtown and began trading the shop in August 2020, three months later than initially scheduled due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. “From that moment on, this work has given me so much,” she explained. “Furthermore, I never stopped training, and I have become part of a tasting panel.

I as well in recent weeks attended a course for milling technicians.” Every day, on the shelves at L’Evo di Eva, visitors can find about 50 of the best Italian blends and monovarietals from across the country in rotation. She chooses each extra virgin olive oil not only for its quality but in addition based on the vision behind it.

As her firm thrives, more growers have proposed starting a collaboration, and Collini is already working on the upcoming olive oil campaign. “What I like most about this job is the expressions of the people when they sense the aromas,” she said, especially from people new to or skeptical of olive oil tasting. About two hours up the A4, in Milan, the capital of neighboring Lombardy, the non-profit collective Officina Enoica is one of the latest novelties in the industry.

While its name refers to an oenological workshop, as it was founded to promote artisanal wines, it has in recent weeks expanded to include high-quality extra virgin olive oils. “We started just some months ago, but we are already having excellent feedback from producers and enthusiasts,” explained co-founder Giovanni Camocardi. A former lighting technician, before devoting himself to the agri-food trade, Camocardi worked for 40 years in theaters, including prestigious venues such as La Scala in Milan. “Thanks to my previous job, I traveled all over Italy, and this fueled a curiosity about the different foods,” he told reporters. “I got to discover agri-food excellences that were unknown elsewhere.

That experience permitted me to get closer to the farming world.” A defining moment for Camocardi was when he met the renowned Italian gastronome Luigi Veronelli in 2000. The Officina Enoica collective now tastes ad features extra virgin olive oil growers along with winemakers. (Photo: Officina Enoica) “We became friends and I took some photos for his magazine,” he stated. “Thanks to him, I developed my passion for wine. I understand the importance of not only what is in the glass, but especially of the people who make the product.” “Veronelli then introduced me to extra virgin olive oil, with his focus on monovarietals and pitted oils,” Camocardi added, leading him to attend a tasting course.

Since its inception, the collective had been exclusively dedicated to artisanal wines, until a few months ago, when a wine producer asked the group to taste his extra virgin olive oil. Having appreciated the product, the collective made a post about its organoleptic profile on Instagram. “After that post, we had had so many requests from high-quality producers that we decided to regularly include extra virgin olive oils and olive growers on our channels,” Camocardi explained.

On the Officina Enoica’s website, in the section dedicated to winemakers and olive planters, the collective creates a page for each firm. In parallel, the extra virgin olive oils are displayed on the Officina Enoica’s Instagram page, along with wines.

In Milan and all around Italy,” he added, the associates usually meet once a week to taste and discuss the products and the projects behind them. “Several producers asked us to organize tasting events like we already do with wine, and therefore we are considering this option for the next olive oil harvest,” Camocardi explained. “We could arrange meetings at our location, or in other venues. Their enthusiasm and the passion they put into their work, as well as the quality of the products we are tasting, make us want to continue to delve into and spread the olive oil culture.”