Tenuta di Saragano is a beautiful estate located between
Todi and Montefalco in Umbria.The estate is in the heart of Umbria’s olive oil
area and is also a popular tourist region with the olive oil museum at the
hilltop village of Trevi, the vineyards of Montefalco and the basilica of
Assisi all within a 30 minute drive. This area of Umbria is renowned for
producing wonderful sweet and fruity extra virgin olive oils and the oil
produced at the Tenuta di Saragano is among the best Umbrian olive oil that is available to the general
public.
The Count Pongelli family have owned the estate since the
14th century and the production of first class olive oil has been maintained
throughout that time. The olive groves are planted with the usual triumverate
of Frantoio, Leccino and Moraiolo olive varieties found in Umbria and the
Frantoio variety dominates in this extra virgin olive oil making up just over
50% of the blend.
It is these varieties when blended together that give the olive oils from
this part of Umbria their special distinct flavour and colour.
The groves which today contain over 5,000 olive trees have been cultivated since the 14th century and
have always been free of the use of chemicals and additives and that is still
the case today.
But it is only since the late ninetenth century that the estate has actually exported their olive oil to other parts of Italy and abroad.
Olives are harvested
from end of October through to December and are processed with traditional
millstones and a Sinolea machine, which cuts the paste with over 5,000 tiny
stainless steel knives. This process
extracts 60% of the oil from the paste and the oil is bottled unfiltered and the sediment is allow to drop out of
the liquid naturally.
This type of oil production is found less frequently in many olive oils found on the market these days and is a sign of the passion and care that the team and family at Saragano carry out their work in the process of producing wonderful DOP extra virgin olive oils.
