De Carlo has been a family run company for generations, operating in the field of olive-growing since 1598. Today it is considered as one of the most modern and efficient ones in Puglia. During the Eighties, Mr and Mrs De Carlo decided to enhance the high quality of their oil and promote it all over the world, so succeeding in establishing themselves on both home and international markets. Thanks to their sons’ and son-in-law’s help, they have developed a company politics based upon short supply chain, high quality, enhancement of taste, and customer’s utmost satisfaction. Today De Carlo counts 75 hectare olive grove, in which almost 15,000 plants of olive are planted out, in the following varieties: Ogliarola, Coratina, and Picciotella. Thanks to them, many labels of extra-virgin olive oil are produced.
DOP Tenuta Torre di Mossa
The main extra-virgin olive oil produced by De Carlo is DOP Tenuta Torre di Mossa Terra di Bari-Bitonto, whose name comes from a historic farm belonging to De Carlo Family, located on the old Via Appia, the historic road which linked Rome and Brindisi. This oil, which entirely comes from the cultivar Coratina barese, an ancient variety of Puglia present on the whole land of the region, is rich in polyphenols, medium-intensely fruity, characterized by a definite green colour and a wide, elegant scent. The scent of olive and mown grass is clear, besides vegetable notes of artichoke and green almond, while its flavour, sweet at first taste, reveals to be characterized by definite, but contained bitter, spicy, intense and lasting flavour, and tantalize consumers’ taste buds with a persisting sensation of vitality. It expresses its whole personality on simple grilled bread, but it is also ideal when it is used raw on meat-based dishes, legume soups, wheat, thinly-sliced raw meat, and tasty first courses. Tenuta Torre di Mossa, an oil with a limited production, consisting in about 20,000 bottles with a capacity of 50 centilitres, is very prestigious, ideal for the consumers who love definite flavours as well as healthy food, and in 2013 different authoritative acknowledgements were bestowed on it, among which the “Best Extra-virgin Olive Oil in the World ‘Flos Olei’ 2013” and “Best of Class” at the 2013 New York International Olive Oil Competition.
Oil selections
Besides Tenuta Torre di Mossa, other selections of oil are produced by De Carlo: DOP Tenuta Arcamone (Coratina single cultivar) and DOP Contrada Torre Marina, both obtained by organic agriculture; DOP Contrada San Martino and Felice Garibaldi, an oil born in order to celebrate Giuseppe Garibaldi’s brother who, in 1835, marked a real turning point in oil production in Puglia, thanks to the insight of picking the fruits directly from the trees. This oil, Ogliarola single cultivar, is gently fruity, characterized by a bright green colour, and a scent which reminds field greens and green tomato, with a definite predominance of olive; its flavour is soft and balanced, characterized by notes of fresh grasses and, in the end, green almond, and stimulates with a soft and lively spicy flavour.
Not only oil
De Carlo Family, with a careful attention towards the new tendencies expressed by the market, proposes a line of elixirs, oils for seasoning constituted by olives, fruit, or fresh spices, besides a line of vegetable preserves and products in oil coming from the vegetable gardens which belong to the family and for which spice and extra-virgin olive oil coming from the farm only are used. So, such products as semi-dried little tomatoes, little artichokes, aubergines, appetizers ‘Giardiniera’ fresh vegetable-based, typical table olives of Puglia, sauces for Pasta, and tasty creams for canapés are proposed.
