Extra Virgin Olive Oil is one of the essential Italian cooking ingredients, yet the journey from a freshly harvested olive to the oil on an Italian table is far more complex than it may appear.

At Frantoio Cavalli, in Ripi, among the hills of Ciociaria in Central Italy, that journey has been refined for more than two centuries.

The Cavalli family's relationship with olive oil began in 1781, when Francesco Cavalli installed a mill and olive press in Ripi. Eleven generations later, the family continues to produce Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, combining accumulated knowledge with modern milling technology.

But what actually happens inside an Italian olive mill?

Let's follow the production process from the olive to the finished oil.

From the Olive Grove to the Mill

Producing a great Extra Virgin Olive Oil begins before the olives ever enter the mill.

The characteristics of the fruit, its variety, stage of ripeness and condition all influence the final oil. Frantoio Cavalli works with carefully selected olives, including Peranzana and Coratina, two cultivars capable of producing dramatically different sensory profiles.

But once the olives arrive at the mill, another crucial phase begins.

From this point forward, every stage has one fundamental objective: extract the oil while preserving as much of the character of the fruit as possible.

Step 1: Cleaning the Olives

Before the olives can be crushed, leaves, stems, small branches and other material collected during harvesting need to be removed.

At Frantoio Cavalli this first stage is performed by a dedicated leaf and branch removal system.

It might sound like a minor detail, but clean fruit is the foundation of a controlled production process. The olives entering the crusher should be separated as effectively as possible from everything that doesn't belong in the oil.

Step 2: Washing

After the initial cleaning, the olives are washed and rinsed.

Together, the first two stages ensure that the olives entering the actual milling process have been properly cleaned.

Only then are they ready to be transformed.

 

Step 3: Crushing the Olives

This is where the transformation becomes visible.

The olives are crushed into a paste containing the different components of the fruit.

Frantoio Cavalli uses a lamellar crushing system designed to perform this stage gently and without heating the olive paste. According to the producer, the temperature of the crushed olives leaving the system can actually be lower than with traditional stone mills.

This is an interesting example of why traditional Italian food production does not necessarily mean using old equipment.

Sometimes, modern technology is used precisely to protect what tradition considers important.

 

Step 4: Malaxation — One of the Most Important Stages

After crushing comes malaxation, or gramolazione in Italian.

During this stage, the olive paste is slowly mixed so that the tiny droplets of oil released during crushing can combine and become easier to extract.

Temperature and exposure to oxygen matter.

Frantoio Cavalli uses five hermetically closed malaxers, helping limit oxidation of the olive paste. Each unit is equipped with a temperature probe connected to a computer, allowing the mill to control the temperature according to the olive variety, degree of ripeness and characteristics of the harvest.

This is an important point.

There isn't necessarily one identical setting that works for every olive.

Different cultivars and different harvests require different decisions.

And that is where technology still needs the knowledge of the miller behind it.

 

Step 5: Extraction

Once malaxation is complete, the paste reaches the decanter.

The decanter separates the main components of the olive paste:

• the olive oil
• the vegetation water naturally contained in the olives
• the solid olive residue, known in Italian as sansa

This is essentially the moment when the oil begins to emerge as a distinct product.

But the process isn't finished yet.

 

Step 6: Final Separation

The oil leaving the decanter can still contain residual vegetation water.

For this reason, Frantoio Cavalli sends it through a final separator, completing the mechanical separation and obtaining clean olive oil ready for consumption.

From an olive entering the mill to the finished oil, the process has now passed through six major stages:

Cleaning → Washing → Crushing → Malaxation → Extraction → Separation

Simple when written in one line.

Considerably more sophisticated when every variable can influence what eventually reaches the bottle.

 

What Does “Cold Extracted Extra Virgin Olive Oil” Mean?

You'll often see cold extracted on bottles of quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

It shouldn't simply be interpreted as a decorative marketing expression.

During production, temperature management is important because excessive heat can alter the aromatic qualities that producers are trying to preserve.

Frantoio Cavalli describes its EVOO as cold extracted and uses temperature-controlled malaxers together with a crushing process designed to avoid heating the olive paste.

The objective is not merely to extract oil from olives.

It is to preserve the characteristics that make one oil different from another.

Peranzana and Coratina: Why the Olive Variety Matters

Just as different grape varieties produce very different wines, different olive cultivars can create very different Extra Virgin Olive Oils.

Frantoio Cavalli works with both Peranzana and Coratina.

Peranzana: Medium Fruity

The producer describes its monocultivar Peranzana EVOO as delicate and light, golden yellow with green reflections.

Its aromatic profile recalls tomato and radish, while on the palate it remains lively without particularly pronounced bitter or peppery sensations.

Coratina: Intense Fruity

Coratina offers an entirely different expression.

Frantoio Cavalli describes it as powerful and decisive, with aromas reminiscent of fennel, mint and hay, followed by a strong and characteristically peppery taste.

This is why choosing an Extra Virgin Olive Oil isn't simply a question of deciding whether an oil is “good”.

It is also about deciding which character works best with the food you are preparing.

 

More Than Two Centuries of Change

Perhaps the most fascinating part of Frantoio Cavalli's production story is how dramatically the machinery has changed while the family's relationship with olive oil has remained.

When Francesco Cavalli established the mill in 1781, the family's olive press used a stone mill powered by a donkey.

That system remained for six generations.

Later, Augusto Cavalli replaced animal power with electricity, significantly increasing production capacity. The family subsequently introduced continuous-cycle cold extraction technology and, more recently, a latest-generation production system.

From stone and animal power to computerized temperature control.

Eleven generations of the same family, but never eleven generations of the same technology.

And that distinction matters.

Authenticity doesn't require freezing production in the past.

For producers like Cavalli, preserving an Italian tradition can also mean adopting better tools to protect the qualities of the olives they have spent generations learning to understand.

 

An Authentic Italian Ingredient, Made to Be Used

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is much more than a finishing touch in Italian cuisine.

It is one of those Italian food ingredients that moves effortlessly from preparation to presentation: used in sauces and vegetables, with pasta, on bread, with fish and meat, or simply poured raw over a finished dish.

That everyday role is precisely why the way it is produced matters.

Behind a bottle of Italian EVOO there can be a chain of decisions involving the olive cultivar, harvest, cleaning, crushing, oxygen exposure, temperature, extraction and final separation.

In the case of Frantoio Cavalli, there are also more than 245 years of family experience behind those decisions.

 

Discover Frantoio Cavalli

At Dolceterra, we selected three different Frantoio Cavalli formats, each designed for a different way of bringing Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil into your kitchen.

Atena — The Statement Bottle

The distinctive amphora-inspired bottle, designed to move naturally from the kitchen to the table.

→ Discover Atena Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Iris — The Everyday Classic

The classic dark-glass bottle for those looking for premium Italian EVOO for everyday use.

→ Discover Iris Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Demetra — The Generous Format

The 5-liter tin for families and serious olive oil lovers who use Extra Virgin Olive Oil as a true pantry essential.

→ Discover Demetra Extra Virgin Olive Oil