Balduccio Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Tuscany, Italy)

Nestled in the rolling Montalbano hills of Tuscany, between Florence and Lucca and close to the historic town of Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, Balduccio is one of Italy's most respected artisan producers of premium organic extra virgin olive oil. The family estate comprises approximately 15 hectares of organically certified olive groves with around 5,000 trees, producing only about 10,000 litres of olive oil annually. This deliberately limited production allows uncompromising attention to quality at every stage, from cultivation to bottling.

The groves are planted predominantly with the traditional Tuscan cultivar Moraiolo (approximately 70%), complemented by Frantoio (20%) and smaller proportions of local varieties including Leccino, Pendolino and Maurino. Together these cultivars produce oils of exceptional complexity, combining vibrant green fruit, elegant bitterness, lively peppery notes and remarkable richness in natural polyphenols—the antioxidants responsible for both the health benefits and longevity of outstanding extra virgin olive oils.

Unlike many producers, Balduccio controls every aspect of production in-house. All olives are harvested by hand during the early harvest season, typically from late October through November, while still partially ripe. Although this significantly reduces oil yield—requiring approximately 8 kilograms of olives to produce just one litre of oil—it maximises freshness, aroma, flavour intensity and polyphenol concentration. Only healthy fruit picked directly from the trees is processed, ensuring consistently exceptional quality from every vintage. Balduccio never purchases olives or olive oil from external sources, even in poor harvest years. Every bottle therefore contains exclusively oil produced from the estate's own groves, guaranteeing complete traceability and preserving the authenticity of each vintage.

The estate operates one of the most technologically advanced olive mills in the Montalbano region, where traditional craftsmanship is combined with cutting-edge processing technology. The olives are processed within only a few hours of harvest, ensuring that freshness, aromas and valuable polyphenols are preserved from the very beginning.

The milling process has been meticulously designed according to the highest modern quality standards. Leaves are first removed using powerful air blowers before the olives are gently washed and dried with innovative "air swords". The fruit is then crushed in a precision knife mill, and the olive paste passes through a temperature-controlled heat exchanger into sealed, continuous vertical malaxers, where kneading takes place at approximately 21°C under oxygen-reduced conditions. This careful control of temperature and oxygen exposure minimises oxidation and preserves the oil's delicate aromas, freshness and antioxidant content. Extraction is performed using a modern two-phase decanter, eliminating the need for additional water and thereby retaining more flavour compounds and polyphenols.

Immediately after extraction, the oil undergoes filtration—a quality step that many producers omit. Removing microscopic fruit particles and residual moisture prevents enzymatic and microbial degradation, significantly improving the oil's stability, freshness and ageing potential. Filtering the oil is expensive (adding 1-2 $ per liter), but even small fruit particles in cloudy, “unfiltered oils” will lead to a decline in oil quality within weeks after pressing. Olive oil lovers with a fine nose are therefore advised against the purchase of unfiltered oils - except for immediate consumption fresh after pressing! The freshly filtered oil is then stored under argon in stainless steel tanks until bottling, ensuring that every bottle retains the vibrant character of freshly pressed olives. 

The driving force behind Balduccio is Andreas März, a Swiss-born agronomist, olive grower and internationally respected authority on Italian wine and olive oil. As editor-in-chief of the renowned wine magazine MERUM, Andreas has spent decades promoting authenticity, terroir and traditional craftsmanship in European wine and food. Wine Provision Shop founder Dr. Hannes Hentze has shared a friendship with Andreas for more than two decades. Since 2004, Andreas has also become one of Europe's leading advocates for transparency and quality in the olive oil industry through his pioneering investigations into olive oil authenticity and production standards. He was subsequently sued big oil cooperations such as Caparelli, and you can read more on the interesting topic of fake “extra virgin”, “cold pressed” etc. olive oil on these websites:

https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/extra-virginity-tom-mueller/21780

Some information on cooking and frying with olive oil, which is totally healthy:

https://savantes.org/news-and-articles/cooking-and-using-olive-oil/71-comparitive-smoke-points

https://spanish-oil.com/blog/smoke-point-of-olive-oil/

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QI0PEb7oVEc

If you happen to be able to read German, we highly recommend the subscription of the MERUM magazine: https://shop.merum.info/de/