The Schiralli family’s oil company produces extra virgin olive oil since 1922. The company is located in Bitetto, Bari County, 400 ft above sea level, on the slopes of Murgia hills. Here the soil is semi-rocky with prolonged and intense sun exposure and sea winds coming from the shore just 8 miles away from our estate.
In that land with the vocation of olive oil, the Schiralli brothers produce their precious extra virgin olive oil with a totally innovative processing technique which is the result of both the many years of experience of the extraction machinery manufacturer and intensive study and research activity conducted with scholars in agricultural and medicine.
With respect for the soil, trees, and olive fruits, today Schiralli brothers use innovative processing techniques thanks to the collaboration with the machinery manufacturer and some scholars in agriculture and medicine. The company daily researches the best way to preserve and enhance the excellent quality of olives and oil.
The production system is based on the following criteria:
- the olives are processed within eight hours of harvest- blade pressing by micro slicing of the olives to avoid crushing stress;
- anaerobic mixing to avoid oxidation processes that compromise the oil quality- cold extraction in a continuous cycle at a temperature below 77° F degrees.- filtration and storage in stainless steel tanks with food nitrogen injection to avoid contact with oxygen
The storage of extra virgin olive oil takes place inside stainless steel tanks on which a food nitrogen injection system is implemented to keep the oil separated from oxygen. The tanks are located in an underground, cool and dry environment with a constant temperature of 14-16 degrees throughout the year;
The entire cycle, therefore, is based on a rigorously cold extraction technology and on preservation devices aimed at keeping the product in anaerobic conditions, thus avoiding the harmful effect of oxidation.
The Crudo laboratory is not only olive oil. In fact the other culinary products of our offer, all “Made in Apulia” are:
- Apulian vegetables preserved in extra virgin olive oil;
- Tomato sauces;
- Handmade Pasta with bronze drawing;
- Backed products (Taralli, Tozzetti and Treccine) with local flour, extra virgin olive oil and yellow muscat wine;
- Olives in water and salt of the fine varieties “Termite di Bitetto” and “Bella di Cerignola”.
The Land: Bitetto
Bitetto is a town in the province of Bari, with 11,900 inhabitants, located on the slopes of the Apulian Murgia, at an altitude of 135 m above sea level.
Its territorial position is ideal for olive growing, deeply rooted in the millenary history of this country. Here, in fact, the olive groves benefit from a favorable condition due to the particular rocky conformation of the land, to an intense and prolonged sunlight exposure, as well as to the climate influenced by the sea currents, just 15 km far.
Seen from above, the inhabited center appears nestled within a vast territory in which green and the silvery shades of olive leaves predominate.
In this land with the vocation of oil, two cultivars of exceptional value originate:
Ogliarola (also called the “Paesana” by the Bitettesi), ideal for the extraction of an oil with noble organoleptic and healthy virtues;
The Termite olive, known as the “Termite di Bitetto”, renowned for the various uses that can be made of it as a table olive;
Thanks to this variety, Bitetto was named “City of the Termite Olive”, receiving the title of city in 2007 by the President of the italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.
