Published sensory profiles of 24 Italian varieties
admin | November 28, 2010Recently I came across a couple of interesting research papers reporting the sensory and fatty acid profiles of a number of Italian varieties – some are well known to those outside of their native range, while others were rather obscure.
The first paper by Rotondi et al. (2010) profiled 489 commercial olive oils declared as monovarietal by the producer were sampled and profiled by a trained sensory panel. Fatty acid profiles were also determined.
The following varieties and regions were profiled.
Bosana-Sardegna (n=82) : Carolea-Calabria (n=21) : Coratina-Puglia (n=49) : Frantoio-Marche, Lazio, Toscana, Umbria (n= 67) : Itrana-Lazio (n=55) : Leccino-Abruzzo, Marche, Toscana, Umbria (n= 59) : Moraiolo-Toscana, Umbria (n= 53) : Peranzana-Puglia (n=27) : Piantone Di Mogliano-Marche (n=34) : Ravece-Campania (n=42)
A limitation of this research was that the resultant profiles were an ‘average’ profile of oils from different regions and presumably different ripeness. As maturity at harvest significantly influences the sensory characteristics of extra virgin olive oil, an ‘average’ profile may not make a lot of sense. However, if you presume that most of the oils were picked in the green to turning stage, and that the sensory profile of a variety doesn’t vary greatly between regions then the profiles may be pretty good representations of the varieties.
The earlier study by Tura et al. (2008) was carried out over 4 growing seasons from 8 varieties grown in the same grove on the west coast of Lake Gardia in Northern Italy. With an annual average temperature of 13.6C and rainfall of 940mm, it would be fair to say that the climatic conditions under which the olive were grown weren’t typically ‘Mediterranean’.
Both papers gave the profiles as large complex tables. I’ve taken the liberty of graphically representing their results. Here they are….
Aroma Profile of Italian Varieties Data Source: Rotondi et al. (2010)
Bitterness and Pungency of Italian varieites: Data Source Rotondi et al. (2010)
Fatty acid profile of Italian Varieties– Percentages given: Data Source Rotondi et al. (2010)
And the profiles of Tura et al. (2008)
Flavour profile of Italian varieties(1): Data source: Tura et al. (2008)
Flavour profile of Italian varieties(2): Data source: Tura et al. (2008)
Flavour profile of Italian varieties(3): Data source: Tura et al. (2008)
Taste profile of Italian varieties(1): Data source: Tura et al. (2008)
Taste profile of Italian varieties(2): Data source: Tura et al. (2008)
Taste profile of Italian varieties(3): Data source: Tura et al. (2008)
References:
Rotondi, A., Alfel, B., Magli, M. and Pannelli, G. (2010) Influence of genetic matrix and crop year on chemical and sensory profiles of Italian monovarietal extra-virgin olive oils. J Sci Food Agric. 90: 2641–2648.
Tura, D., Failla, O., Bassi, D., Pedo, S. and Serraiocco, A. (2008) Influence on virgin olive (Olea europea L.) oil flavor based on aromatic compounds and sensorial profile. Scientia Horticulturae, 118, 139-148.
Hi Richard,
As you’ll have noticed, but readers may not be aware, the paper is based on an analysis of some of the data in an amazing database of such records that is publicly accessible:
http://www.olimonovarietali.it/database/accesso-alla-banca-dati
* * * * (Google translate: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.olimonovarietali.it/database/accesso-alla-banca-dati&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.ca&usg=ALkJrhgHaZKNzchQG-R3Zl6Y9g-yOcNrzw
Database of Italian oil monovarietals
Access to the database of the Italian mono-varietal oils.
The database currently single variety of oils consists of over 1300 Italian oils evaluated during the “National Exhibition of Oil monovarietal Italians” in the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. […]
Access to the database allows an accurate description of the flavor profile of the oils monovarietals come to the Festival (as assessed by the Panel ASSAM Marche) and the description of the profile of major fatty acids. For each type of single variety is determined by the average sensory profile , the confidence limits (95% probability) of the profile, the fatty acid composition, the total phenol content, the list of regions from which the samples analyzed, years of reference for the review.
* * * *
Amazing! Here for instance are the data on the Coratinas for this period (61 samples from 2006-2010):
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.olimonovarietali.it/database/monovarietale%3Fid%3DCORATINA&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.ca&usg=ALkJrhiC_oDGxaDNq8K9VcVaSbCssOrsNw
Note the high av’g poly & oleic, but the huge variation by farm and year. Cf. that for Frantoio (amusingly translated as “Crusher,” which may for all I know actually be the literal translation of the varietal name):
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.olimonovarietali.it/database/monovarietale%3Fid%3DFRANTOIO&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.ca
One quirk of the translation: in the fatty acid profile table, a lot of zero-point-x (eg, “0.05”) turn up as twelve-colon-x (“12:05”). You can catch this, and some other problems, by just hovering your cursor over the section in question; the original Italian pops up to view, and decipher.
Happy hunting 🙂 .
Hi Michael – Actually I didn’t know that this database existed. I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of punching a pile of numbers into excel and creating those figures in the blog if I had. But I guess the ones I compiled allows for easy comparison and data from more than one research group was presented. You are certainly a mine of info, and once again thanks for the heads up. I’m sure other readers of the blog will find your discovery useful – RG