[Tenuta del Barone di Montemurlo](https://www.oliodelbarone.com/en) — Tuscan extra virgin olive oil # From branch to mill Between the last olive picked and the first drop of oil, a few hours pass. It is the thing that matters most, and almost nobody prints it on a label. ## Why time matters An olive taken from the tree is a wounded fruit. From that moment it starts to oxidise, and if it sits heaped in a crate it starts to ferment as well: the temperature rises, and the acidity of the oil rises with it. Olives that reach the mill after two or three days can still be legally extra virgin and have lost almost all their aroma on the way. Olives that arrive the same day have not. From our grove to the mill is eight hundred and seventy metres: three minutes. Olives picked in the morning are milled in the afternoon. ## Where we take them To Frantoio Biologico della Rocca, run by Felice Agricoltura, in Piazza Castello 1 at Montemurlo — at the foot of the rocca, below the castle. It also mills for other growers in the area, by appointment, coordinating the harvests: which is how an estate as small as ours can afford to mill the same day instead of waiting days for a slot. ## What cold extraction means It means the olive paste never goes above 27 °C at any stage. Heating draws more oil from the same olives — that is why it is done — but it takes away the volatile compounds, which is the aroma, and much of the polyphenols, which is the bitterness, the pepper and what keeps the oil stable over time. Cold gives you less oil. A lower yield and a better oil: a grower who sells direct can afford that, one who sells by weight cannot. [All oils](https://www.oliodelbarone.com/en)