Making olive oil at Sant’Agata D’Oneglia

• By Daphne Caruana Galizia

Taste travelled to Imperia, on the Italian Riviera, to help celebrate the Mela family’s 180th anniversary of making olive oil in Sant’ Agata d’ Oneglia.

This part of the coast is called the Riviera dei Fiori because it is known for its commercial plantations of flowers for the perfumery industry. Olive oil is a fairly ‘recent’ development in historical terms – the first trees were planted out in this part of Italy, where they do not occur naturally (the olive belongs to the southern Mediterranean and the Near East) in the 1600s. The variety is the Taggiasca olive, which yields rich oil and is suited to the hilly coastal geography of the area. It is extremely hardy and can grow from sea level up to 1000 metres. The DOP oil produced by numerous high-quality olive mills contributes in a significant way to the economy of the region. The availability of olive oil has also influenced Liguria’s cuisine. Whereas in neighbouring Piedmont butter is the first choice for cooking and food preparation, because of its ready availability from mountain herds, in Liguria, as in the southern Mediterranean where there are few herds, it is olive oil. Preserving anchovies and vegetables in olive oil is a fairly recent innovation there. Before the arrival of the olive trees, fish and vegetables were dried and salted. Salt, after all, was just down the road, and lots of it. The olive oil business kept the people of Liguria alive during and immediately after World War II, even though more than 600,000 trees, at a conservative estimate, were cut down for desperately needed fuel.

The Mela family know all about this, because they have been making olive oil for many generations, since 1827. This is their 180th anniversary. They have started in the same hamlet where they began – Sant’Agata D’Oneglia, a tiny hilltop conglomeration of a just a few houses, hovering above Oneglia down below on the coast. Antonio Mela, the present pater familias, began working in the family enterprise around 20 years ago, with his wife who has since died. He left work with the pasta manufacturer Agnesi, which has a large operation in Imperia, to take on the olive oil concern and restructure it, turning it into a full-on commercial venture. Signor and Signora Mela put their heads down and worked, coming up with modern devices like logos and marketing literature. It was a daring risk, because they had four children to support. The problems and difficulties came out in the wash and it all turned out beautifully. Sant’ Agata D’Oneglia olive oil is now one of the most prestigious in Italy. At the International Culinary Institute for Foreigners in Asti (see our features about making pesto in Asti and Matty's day at the International Culinary Institute for Foreigners) a bottle of Sant’Agata D’Oneglia’s best oil was in a locked glass cupboard, along with other precious oils from all over Italy.

The brown glass bottles are chunky and satisfying to pick up. They scream out ‘high end’. Unsurprisingly, these bottles won the equivalent of the European packaging Oscars some years ago. Antonio Mela says that a large part of his work in the early days, and to a certain extent even today, is travelling around Italy finding out how other olive oil producers work. “If you don’t have passion and love for this business, it shows in the product,” he says. His greatest accolade came when he won the Ercole Olivano award for his oil.

In 1996, the Melas left behind their old frantoio which is buried deep in the winding alleys of the hamlet. It had been in use for decades – only the second mill that the Melas had owned in 170 years. We saw the first mill too, which is of the type in use in the Mediterranean for a couple of thousand years, made of stone and turned by animals. The new press is a stainless steel digitally operated affair, which makes it possible for the Mela family to reach the production levels that demand now expects. Two of Antonio’s daughters joined him in the business – a third joined a convent and his son Matteo is an acclaimed classical guitarist who plays on the international circuit. One of them, Christiana, looks after international sales and marketing. She goes to fairs, meets importers and clients, and more crucially, has developed a whole range of delicatessen products and even an array of cosmetics made with olives and olive oil.

Twenty years ago, Sant’Agata D’Oneglia olive oil was sold only in the north of Italy (“The south has its own oil,” Antonio says, pragmatically). Their Italian market is still in the north and centre of the peninsula, but much of their oil is now sold in northern Europe, which has no oil of its own at all. Scandinavia is a big market; so is Britain. Moscow is a new market for them. “It’s difficult for an Italian company to break into the Spanish or French markets with olive oil and delicatessen products,” says Christiana. “They have their own.” These are not supermarket products. You will never see Sant’Agata olive oil or jars of preserves on the shelves of supermarkets. “We sell only through specialist shops and delicatessens,” she says. “It can make things more difficult because we are dealing with many small accounts instead of a few big ones, but it’s important to us to maintain that high-end approach. It reflects the quality of what we are selling.”

Sant’ Agata D’Oneglia’s DOP (protected origin) oil is made from the Taggiasca olives of just 3000 trees on their estate. The DOP is Riviera dei Fiori. They also buy olives from surrounding estates. The hillsides are covered in olive groves but supply never seems to meet demand.

Because Oneglia is in the northern Mediterranean, pressing starts much later than it does in the far south, including Malta, where it begins in late September. The olives at Sant’Agata D’Oneglia are first picked and pressed around 10 November, and the process carries on until January. “And this is early for Liguria, because we are on the coast and so the weather is relatively warmer,” Christiana points out.

Sant’ Agata D’Oneglia olive oil and delicatessen products are sold by: