This oil is a concentrate of love. In the early 1960s, Cavaliere Gentile Bizzotto and his wife Elisa chose to open the new headquarters of their textile workshop in Pove del Grappa, a town in the province of Vicenza famous for its fortunate microclimate. They chose the land also because it included an olive grove rich in centuries-old trees, some even more than three centuries old.
“Oro” indicates the preciousness of our golden-colored oil. “Pòe,” in Venetian dialect, is Pove del Grappa, the place evoked by the olive trees within which Tenuta Gentile is located.
In the area where our olive grove is located, from the centuries-old trees of the native “Frantoio Povese” variety, we harvest and select olives which, cold-pressed in purity, yield this extra virgin olive oil—golden green to the eye, intense on the nose, and balanced on the palate. Here a limited selection of PDO extra virgin olive oil is born, dedicated to a figure of our territory who blends history and legend: CAIUS VETTONIUS MAXIMUS—an homage to our tradition and its rich human heritage. For this limited selection of Veneto del Grappa PDO Extra Virgin Olive Oil in half-liter bottles, all strictly hand-numbered and certified by Mipaaf, we have created ad-hoc packaging.
Our limited edition Oro de Pòe CAIUS VETTONIUS MAXIMUS Veneto del Grappa PDO Extra Virgin Olive Oil has been included in the “Slow Food Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil Presidium” project. The Presidia are Slow Food communities that work every day to save native breeds, vegetable and fruit varieties, breads, cheeses, cured meats, and traditional sweets from extinction, and are committed to passing on production techniques and crafts, caring for the environment, and enhancing landscapes, territories, and cultures. Around 600 Presidia involve farmers, artisans, shepherds, fishers, and winemakers in 70 countries. The oil undergoes chemical analyses to determine the organoleptic values that guarantee its quality, verifying that they fall within the parameters of the Veneto del Grappa PDO Extra Virgin Olive Oil regulations. This is complemented by a sensory analysis through the so-called Panel Test, in which properly trained and highly experienced tasters provide sensory judgments during tasting (pungency, fruitiness, sweetness, bitterness, etc.). The combination of these analytical and tasting results forms the basis for evaluating the oil.
Why is Oro de Pòe unique?
First of all, consider the geographical area where Tenuta Gentile lies: one of the northernmost places in Europe where the olive tree grows and bears fruit. The territory of Pove del Grappa sits in a natural basin at the foot of Monte Grappa and is characterized by a mild, breezy climate and relatively low humidity. For this reason it is called the “Basin of the Olives.” The product’s high quality is also due to the composition of the soils: once the widened bed of the Brenta River, they are morainic-alluvial, interspersed with sandy and marly-clayey layers. Then we must consider the olive varieties. The native “Frantoio Povese,” abundantly present in both centuries-old and younger trees, produces olives whose oil is much more delicate than that of other varieties—hence its inimitable taste. Finally, cultivation methods play an essential role. Under the expert guidance of agronomist Stefano Farronato, the olive trees are treated by combining ancient traditional methods, tied to nature’s cycles, with modern accoutrements and techniques.
All these characteristics make Oro de Pòe an oil full of personality. We respect our olive trees both in their morphology and physiology. We carry out pruning to facilitate a “full-canopy arrangement,” encouraging the alternation of fruiting branches—an important trait of olive trees. The fertilizers used are organic-based and strictly comply with the national P.A.N. integrated control plan against olive diseases, also using biological traps to monitor insects present in the grove. The grove is fully grassed, and the permanent meadow is rich in aromatic species whose notes are then found in the fruity/herbaceous character of our oil. At the beginning of September, we begin to check the ripeness index of the olives according to the different varieties present in our grove. Based on these analyses, we decide the date and areas where harvesting will begin (generally in the second ten days of October).
A unique oil, because the conditions in which it comes to life are unique.
We harvest by hand and with the help of manual aids, always respecting the trees and their fruit. The intact, healthy olives are taken to the mill the same day, with the aim of bringing the harvest as close as possible to pressing: the effort is to preserve the product’s distinctive traits. Milling takes place within a few hours of harvest at a mill that uses a continuous-cycle pressing system, so as to capture and retain the best organoleptic properties the olives can impart to the oil. The stability of its characteristics—favored by a high presence of peroxides—and the richness of polyphenols are among the main quality parameters of extra virgin olive oil.
