D.O.P. Canino
Protected Designation of Origin recognised at European level in 1996. It ties the oil to the Canino district, to the historic cultivars and to acidity and yield parameters fixed by the specification. Every batch passes a panel test.
The Canino PDO specification allows Caninese alongside Leccino, Frantoio, Pendolino and Maurino. We give up the blend: one cultivar only, the one born here, which no other territory has unblended.
It is a choice that costs. Blending smooths difficult years and makes the oil more predictable; a single cultivar, on the contrary, exposes the vintage as it is. In return you get a recognisable profile: clean bitterness and pepper, artichoke and cardoon, a green-almond finish.
Harvest begins early, in mid-September, at the very start of veraison: the oil yield is lower, the phenolic content at its peak. Hours pass between the tree and the mill.
There is a second reason to leave it alone. In comparisons among Italian cultivars, Caninese is among those that lose the fewest phenolic compounds in storage: an oil alive in January is still alive in June. It is also why the Selection ships in tin and not in clear glass.
Technical sheet
- Cultivar
- Caninese 100%
- Category
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Designation
- D.O.P. Canino
- Farming
- Certified organic
- Locality
- Santa Lucia, Canino (VT)
- Soils
- Volcanic, of Vulsini origin
- Altitude
- Hillside, 150–350 m a.s.l.
- Harvest
- By hand, mid-September to November
- Extraction
- Cold, within 12 hours of picking
- Acidity
- Comfortably within the specification limit
- Biophenols
- Vintage value stated on the lot
- Storage
- Away from light and heat, 14–18 °C
The 250 mg/kg threshold is the one set by EU Reg. 432/2012 to be allowed to state on the label that olive oil polyphenols protect blood lipids from oxidative stress: 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and derivatives per 20 g of oil. Roughly one oil in ten on the shelf clears it.
