2000 Alto Garda Olive Harvest Yields Quality Despite Rain Challenges

The 2000 vintage, from the perspective of olive growers in Alto Garda, will be remembered for two main reasons: the excellent quality of the product and the “tour de force” imposed by bad weather, affecting both the harvesters and the staff at the two oil mills active in the area. For days, the millstones of the Associazione Agraria di Riva and Ivo Bertamini in Vignole have been operating nonstop; nonetheless, they cannot keep up with the rush of farmers (professional or part-time) patiently waiting for their turn. A 50-ton per hour mill would be needed, comments Mario Zumiani, director of Agraria, while Ivo Bertamini counts the sleepless nights still ahead before shutting down the machines to restart them no sooner than the 2001 season.

Harvest Conditions and Oil Quality

All due to the rain, incessant during the first three weeks of November, usually dedicated to harvesting, and intermittently in these early December days. The ripening of the olives, thanks to a warm summer lasting into early autumn, was already quite advanced by the end of October, so the mills opened earlier than in previous years. But to no avail: for several days, no one showed up. The farmers kept their noses turned upward, hoping the weather would turn clear and allow them to work unperturbed.

Instead, at a certain point, as the ground beneath the branches laden with fruits turned dark with olives full of water, they had to surrender and begin harvesting in the pouring rain. Finally, the mills, which will remain operational at least until the first week of January, started turning and pressing the fine Garda extra virgin olive oil out of the olives.

“The quality is truly good,” affirms Zumiani, “even better than last year. The 2000 oil has a very delicate flavor and a fruity aroma; the acidity is around 0.1-0.2 percent. Very low, as is characteristic of products from our region.”

Oil Yield and Damages

Regarding yield, as Ivo Bertamini explains, it is lower than it could normally be due to the rain that weighed down the olives: the poorest yield is 16 percent per quintal, the richest around 20 percent. The average stands at about 17 percent, and inevitably some complain, recalling results from, for example, the 1998-’99 campaign (average yield of 18.73%), 1995-’96 (20.46%), or even, looking further back, 1986-’87 (24.06%).

However, those who wish can take consolation in the fact that the olive pest, the famous olive fly, did not cause damage this time. Not that it didn’t try—hot weather favored it—but the targeted and repeated phytosanitary treatments, even late into the season, apparently proved effective.

Growing olives requires effort, hard work, and passion, say the elderly Alto Garda farmers, who despite age and ailments climb high steps to pass the “bronzes” one by one, pruning and tending the plants with traditional methods and wisdom that no manual can teach.