Colli Etruschi

In 2014 Flos Olei awarded Best Olive Oil in the World to Colli Etruschi's flagship EVO oil - a spectacular single variety Caninese extra virgin. The oil really did have the most extradordinary deep, herbal character and a beautiful spicy green length to it but the award was really to show recognition to the people at the cooperative who, over the years, had managed to bring together over 350 local farmers and convince them that quality was possible and, most of all, necessary if they wanted to make a living from their olives.

At Colli Etruschi there is a strong feeling of team where everyone is dedicated to making the best product they can from tree to bottle. This is a team led by one of the heroes of Italian oil production: Nicola Fazzi - a quiet, strong, generous man with a wonderful twinkle and a wicked sense of humour. As I say, it is a team but somehow without Nicola I feel it would be a very different one.

Like all the best mills Colli Etruschi are maniacal about hygiene and every morning during harvest a team of people are in there cleaning for three and a half hours. They are also lucky to have one of the Ferraris of Italian milling: a Pieralisi Leopard - a machine two other of our producers have: Giorgio Franci and Salvatore Cutrera. But, in the end, you can have the best machinery in the world but it is the people who run it and the olives they put into it that matter and here at Colli Etruschi as soon as you smell and taste the oil you know that this really is one of the best oils in the world.